History FanFic / TheLongRoad2015

* LikeFatherLikeSon: Hiccup's crush ends up highlighting even more similarities between him and his father in adaptation than the canon versions of most episodes. They're both clever, incredibly stubborn, overprotective, socially-awkward leader-figures with a strong streak of hypocrisy when it comes to the people they love worrying them. They're sometimes incredibly difficult to reason with due to their stubborn insistence that they're right, and can delve into ignorantly self-righteous positions without realizing it. The two also seem to have similar tastes in romantic interests (sans differences in sexuality): Hiccup, despite his initial denial and subsequent self-loathing, has ever-growing romantic feelings for Jack, and Chapter 6 implies that Jack's personality and quirks ''strongly'' remind Stoick of Hiccup's mother, Valka, with enough regularity that Stoick often finds it painful to interact with hi.

* TheMasquerade: Plyed with. Berk has fantastical elements in their everyday lives, like dragons and the magic-weilding Gothi. However, an aspect of this is still going on in small scale, beginning when Hiccup decides to keep Jack's inhuman nature a secret from the rest of the tribe and convinces the rest of the riders to cooperate. What begins as keeping Jack a secret from the adult vikings who may try to harm him quickly expands into keeping the many more magical aspects of the world at play a secret from them--or at least, keeping the teens' involvement with them a secret. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] as 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 disinclination to trust others and a subsequent tendency towards secrecy. He's explicitly stated that he fears the tribe will hunt Jack if they know.

* TheMasquerade: Berk has a bit of this is going on in small scale so far, though it's slowly increasing. What began as keeping Jack a secret from the adult vikings who may try to harm him has now expanded to keeping the many magical aspects of the world at play a secret from them--or at least, keeping the teens' involvement with them a secret, which is growing increasingly more difficult over time. Given how the secrets are piling up, it's also basically inevitable this charade will break at some point.
** 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 disinclination to trust others and a subsequent tendency towards secrecy. He's explicitly stated that he fears the tribe will hunt Jack if they know.

* BirdsOfAFeather: According to Stoick, Jack and Valka. While not much of her has been revealed yet in the story, we know they share the same habit of sleeping anywhere and in any position, to the confused exasperation of the people who know and love them, and that they both made dragon toys for children. [[labelnote:*]]If Valka's character is similarly accurate to film canon, then they're both gentle, nurturing people despite their skill in battle, with eccentric, wild, untamed independent streaks in their personalities, who [[SpeaksFluentAnimal Speak Fluent Animal]] (although Jack to a far greater degree), melodramatically dress up in spear-wielding, inhumanly masked alter egos to face their enemies, and have spent long durations of time outside of human society and thus have to take time adjusting to how it works again.[[/labelnote]] [[spoiler: They've also both caught the romantic eye of a clever, leaderly, incredibly stubborn, overprotective, socially-awkward Haddock]]. Evidently the behavioral similarities are obvious enough that interacting with Jack often makes Stoick appear "haunted."

* LikeFatherLikeSon: Hiccup's crush ends up highlighting even more similarities between him and his father in adaptation than the canon versions of most episodes. They're both clever, incredibly stubborn, overprotective, socially-awkward leader-figures with a strong streak of hypocrisy when it comes to the people they love worrying them. They're sometimes incredibly difficult to reason with due to their stubborn insistence that they're right, and can delve into ignorantly self-righteous positions without realizing it. The two also seem to have similar tastes in romantic interests (sans differences in sexuality): Hiccup, despite his initial denial and subsequent self-loathing, has ever-growing romantic feelings for Jack, and Chapter 6 implies that Jack's personality and quirks ''strongly'' remind Stoick of Hiccup's mother, Valka, with enough regularity that Stoick often finds it painful to interact with him (see BirdsOfAFeather above).

* 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 possibly 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.

* BirdsOfAFeather: According to Stoick, Jack and Hiccup's mother, Valka. While not much of her has been revealed yet in the story, we know they share the same habit of sleeping anywhere and in any position, to the confused exasperation of the people who know and love them, and that they both made dragon toys for children. [[labelnote:*]]If Valka's character is similarly accurate to film canon, then they're both gentle, nurturing people despite their skill in battle, with eccentric, wild, untamed independent streaks in their personalities, who [[SpeaksFluentAnimal Speak Fluent Animal]] (although Jack to a far greater degree), melodramatically dress up in spear-wielding, inhumanly masked alter egos to face their enemies, and have spent long durations of time outside of human society and thus have to take time adjusting to how it works again.[[/labelnote]] [[spoiler: They've also both caught the romantic eye of a clever, leaderly, incredibly stubborn, overprotective, socially-awkward Haddock]]. Evidently the behavioral similarities are obvious enough that interacting with Jack often makes Stoick appear "haunted."

* BirdsOfAFeather: Jack and Hiccup's mother, Valka, especially if the backstory revealed in the second movie is also true here. They're both very gentle, nurturing people despite their skill in battle, with wild and untamed independent streaks in their personalities, and they're comfortable with sleeping anywhere and in any position, to the confused exasperation of the people who know and love them. They both have made children toys, specifically of dragons. If the story adopts the second movie's canon, then they're both eccentrics who [[SpeaksFluentAnimal Speak Fluent Animal]] (although Jack to a far greater degree), melodramatically dress up in spear-wielding, inhumanly masked alter egos to face their enemies, and have spent long durations of time outside of human society and thus have to take time adjusting to how it works again. [[spoiler: They've both caught the romantic eye of a clever, leaderly, incredibly stubborn, overprotective, socially-awkward Haddock]]. Even without being aware of most of these similarities, Stoick is still the first to realize a likeness in Jack's and Valka's personalities and quirks--enough so that interacting with Jack often makes Stoick appear "haunted."

* LikeFatherLikeSon: Deviating from the original canon, the story uses the unique dynamics of Hiccup's crush on Jack to delve more into Hiccup's more downplayed flaws and tendencies, which ends up highlighting a lot more similarities between him and his father than the canon versions of most episodes. They're both clever, incredibly stubborn, overprotective, socially-awkward leader-figures with a strong streak of hypocrisy when it comes to the people they love worrying them. They're sometimes incredibly difficult to reason with due to their stubborn insistence that they're right, and can delve into ignorantly self-righteous positions without realizing it. The two also seem to have similar tastes in romantic interests (sans differences in sexuality): Hiccup, despite his initial denial and subsequent self-loathing, has ever-growing romantic feelings for Jack, and Chapter 6 implies that Jack's personality and quirks ''strongly'' remind Stoick of Hiccup's mother, Valka, with enough regularity that Stoick often finds it painful to interact with him (see BirdsOfAFeather above).

* {{Foil}}: Astrid and Jack, in terms of their relationship with Berk's societal roles. Both are love interests for Hiccup, both take on protective leadership roles with the children of the village, and both are themselves inversions of Viking gender norms. Jack, though male, is gentle, nurturing, magical, fairly passive unless serious combat is strictly necessary (discounting his mischievous tendencies), and despite his wild streak, he's also fairly domestic in his skill at sewing and storytelling, and is even training in healing; from the perspective of Viking ideology towards gender roles, he's bizarrely feminine. Meanwhile, Astrid--while protective, and loved by children as a role model, leader, and protector--is more violence-oriented and quick to combat, with very little domestic or nurturing capabilities (can't cook, and is terrible at dealing with children outside of training); indeed, she fits their masculine ideal better than anyone else in the younger generation does. Jack is told his more "effeminate" qualities must be downplayed or he will likely face trouble and rejection from their society--but Astrid's "masculine" ones are openly and widely admired.
** Also Perun to Jack, though we only briefly hear of Perun. From what little we ''do'' hear, Perun and Jack sound like exact opposites in powers and character traits: Perun's a sociopathic, solitary-based spirit who elementally is related to fire, lightning, and heat, while Jack is a highly sympathetic and empathic being rooted in the desire for company and communication and elementally related to wind, water, and the cold. [[spoiler: If Perun really is Dagur and Dagur is kept consistent with his canon characterization, then Jack and Perun are both former mortals raised to immortality with romantically-toned aspects to their relationships with Hiccup]].

* LoveEpiphany: Hiccup has a version of this trope in Chapter 9 He doesn't take it well.

* LoveEpiphany: Hiccup has a version of this trope in Chapter 9. [[FreakOut He doesn't take it well]].

* LoveMakesYouCrazy: Downplayed. While self-restrained, Hiccup is at his most irrational and hypocritical when worrying over Jack.

* LoveMakesYouCrazy: It's not extreme, but Hiccup can act pretty irrationally when Jack's in danger, as you might have guessed from other tropes on this page.

* TroubledSympatheticBigot: Hiccup may be forward-thinking and open-minded for his time, but he's still a product of his culture, and there are many instances when he ignorantly makes judgments based off little more than the ingrained cultural prejudices he's been raised with. For instance, when explaining the Viking prejudice against men who use magic, which roots itself in sexism and the Vikings' hypermasculine ideal, Hiccup feels increasingly petty and embarrassed and briefly struggles to come up with a reason why (instead of the prejudice being wrong) such a slur simply doesn't apply to Jack--and in doing so accidentally lands on ''another'' thing he's been insensitive about before, which is that Jack isn't human and thus human standards of behavior and gender norms shouldn't apply. Furthermore, this ingrained heteronormative, misogynistic thinking drives him to being prejudiced ''[[InternalizedCategorism against himself]]'', once he realizes he's sexually attracted to Jack, believing that he's a terrible person for having such feelings as well as a horrible friend.

* MerlinAndNimue: Played with. Jack and Gothi ''do'' have a master-apprentice bond involving magic, but the typical aspects of the trope are skewed: rather than an older woman teaching a younger man, Gothi is old, true--but her apprentice is an immortal youth with centuries more worldly and magical experience than her. However, she still has things to teach him, given that Jack's understanding of practical magic isn't particularly deep in terms of its use with humans. Also, because men aren't supposed to learn or use magic, the magical aspect of the apprenticeship is secret; ostensibly, she's only teaching him medicine. The effect this education has on Jack's abilities or character have yet to be explored very much, but the longer he stays in the village, the more likely it is that he'll begin to take on the responsibilities this apprenticeship entails, likely becoming TheMedic of the main cast.

** This also reveals a hypothetical weakness in Jack's [[{{Omniglot}} Gift of Tongues]]. Jack can't detect the similarities between his name and the word Icicle in Norse, meaning he can't percieve homophones in other languages. Thus, it's likely Jack wouldn't be able to understand puns, wordplay, metaphors, similes, or riddles; all are forms of language with implied rather than direct meaning that rely on cultural connotations and/or the mechanics of that specific language and thus wouldn't translate well. It means that, should he encounter non-English wordplay, he may ''literally'' hear something different from what his friends hear, and thus be unable to understand even if they were to explain it, because he would be unable to even perceive the connections and similarities they do.

* AngelUnaware: Berk is hosting Jack, a weather-controlling immortal spirit, but none of the adults are aware of this and they somehow [[WeirdnessCensor easily dismiss all of his very obviously abnormal characteristics]]. The only thing that comes up as strange to them is his dislike of boots and his ability to communicate with dragons, which, while temporarily causing a bit of internal conflict with Stoick, is seemingly dropped as a point of interest afterwards. Given the liklihood of them finding out at some point, it'll probably turn into GodWasMyCoPilot.

* TheRedBaron: There are hints that Jack's Frost Giant disguise will become this; not only are his actions implied to be inspiring the stories of the legendary Jokul of Norse myth, but he's appeared in this form before three of the most prominent clans and their leaders and wiped the floor with all who stood against him in spectacularly dramatic fashion--there's very little chance that the stories won't spread.

''[[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. The story can also be found [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/3276788/chapters/7147559 here]] on Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The fic goes out of its way to highlight some aspects of Viking culture that the series glosses over or doesn't represent completely. For example, the hypermasculinity the Berk Vikings have in canon is taken to its [[NobleBigot logical extreme]], and no attempt is made to dodge the UnfortunateImplications and [[DoubleStandard Double Standards]] set up by this.

* DoubleStandard: The Viking's reasoning for why magic should only be performed by women is heavily implied to boil down to the implication that men using it is a dishonorable advantage, as their role in society should be achievable by the masculine ideal of pure strength or cleverness (especially in combat), while women need magic as a handicap because they're just not as competent as men--thus, guys who use magic are stigmatized as using an effeminate handicap and reneging on the honor of their gender. Regardless of if this implication is correct, according to Hiccup male magic users are usually (at best) alienated from society and (at worst) killed on sight. Hiccup [[HeelRealization seems to become aware]] of some of the UnfortunateImplications as he explains this to Jack, but temporarily digs himself into a hole by trying to argue that the standards of mortal men don't apply to Jack because he isn't human (something else Jack is particularly sensitive about). Hiccup's babbled attempt to explain this cultural belief ends with him feeling increasingly petty and embarrassed; see TroubledSympatheticBigot further down the page.

* SixthRanger: Despite actually being the seventh member, Jack functions as this to the teens. Though he's a benevolent version, he nonetheless has characteristics that separate him from the group as a whole and his presence drastically alters the StatusQuo within the group. As common with this trope, the teens even have a moment of doubting his loyalties at one point.

* TheStoryteller: Jack quickly becomes known for his skill as this to the children of Berk. This also acts as a {{Worldbuilding}} InfoDump for the reader, calling attention to story elements from the ''Guardians of Childhood'' universe that have been CanonWelded here with ''Rise of the Guardians''.

* PoorCommunicationKills: It's pretty obvious this will come into play at some point, what with the increasing amount of secrets Hiccup is keeping as more and more of his life becomes entangled in Jack's and the group's subsequent involvement in magical shenanigans increases.

* FishOutOfWater:
** Hiccup ''is'' very progressive and mold-breaking for his day--but he's still a product of his culture, and even when breaking from tradition, still thinks of his culture's standards as the norm. As such, his accepting and compassionate personality often struggles to find middle ground with the cultural norms and beliefs he's been taught all of his life, and he can occasionally slip into the role of TroubledSympatheticBigot. This comes out especially in his relationship with Jack, who is not only from a different culture, but isn't human--Hiccup often flounders when it comes to logically justifying which standards he holds Jack to and which standards he excuses Jack from (for example, Hiccup expects Jack to follow his lead and let Hiccup take on the primary risks and role of protector, which has been Hiccup's standard relationship dynamic with the normal, human citizens of Berk since the fight with the Green Death, but Hiccup also accepts Jack's flouting of the gender norm with the excuse that Jack isn't human, and so human standards of behavior don't apply). Notably, the DoubleStandard this sets up allows Hiccup to mentally treat Jack as another human without having to confront or challenge the authority and righteousness of Viking moral teachings and social norms--proving that despite being friends with Jack, Hiccup's not ''as'' instantly accepting of deviations from Viking norms as some might think.
*** This is further enforced by the ignorantly homophobic InternalizedCategorism Hiccup demonstrates after realizing he's sexually attracted to Jack. Having been raised in a heavily hypermasculine society with clearly defined gender roles and a major moralizing emphasis on tradition, it never ''occurs'' to Hiccup that he, or any man, could have a morally acceptable, emotionally healthy sexual interest in another man, because as far as he knows, sexual relations between men are exclusively a forced humiliating punishment and mark of shame--the implication being that if you want to do that to someone else, you're exceptionally cruel, and if you want that done to you, there's something wrong with you.
** Jack does have his issues with fitting in with human society, but not because of his inhumanity. Having lived as an invisible observer outside of civilization, Jack behaves as something of a WildChild. He sees no reason to value money or shelter or new goods beyond the simple fun and pleasure he could have with such items (he doesn't even value them for practicality, because as an immortal being, he doesn't share a human's necessities to live), and so Jack doesn't understand the discomfort his new friends have with the idea that he owns nothing but his staff and the clothes on his back. And while Jack can at times be perceptive about others' situations, he has little awareness for the expectations their society may have for him. The differences in behavior between Jack and the Vikings is what often confuses each involved party the most.

* AnIcePerson: Jack, already a winter spirit by nature, takes this UpToEleven when he creates a disguise for himself resembling a Frost Giant in order to more freely use his powers in battle without drawing attention to his faux-human identity. Every part of him is hidden under opaque layers of ice, including his clothes and his face, which becomes masked and featureless.

** Given the story's lack of shyness when it comes to sexuality, the FoeYay subtext between Dagur and Hiccup in canon will likely become [[IncrediblyLamePun plain text]].

* 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 the story hasn't even covered the events with all the infamous FoeYay between Dagur and Hiccup yet.

* RealityEnsues:
** Hiccup ''is'' very progressive and mold-breaking for his day--but he's still a product of his culture, and even when breaking from tradition, still thinks of his culture's standards as the norm. As such, his accepting and compassionate personality often struggles to find middle ground with the cultural norms and beliefs he's been taught all of his life, and he can occasionally slip into the role of TroubledSympatheticBigot. This comes out especially in his relationship with Jack, who is not only from a different culture, but isn't human--Hiccup often flounders when it comes to logically justifying which standards he holds Jack to and which standards he excuses Jack from (for example, Hiccup expects Jack to follow his lead and let Hiccup take on the primary risks and role of protector, which has been Hiccup's standard relationship dynamic with the normal, human citizens of Berk since the fight with the Green Death, but Hiccup also accepts Jack's flouting of the gender norm with the excuse that Jack isn't human, and so human standards of behavior don't apply). Notably, the DoubleStandard this sets up allows Hiccup to mentally treat Jack as another human without having to confront or challenge the authority and righteousness of Viking moral teachings and social norms--proving that despite being friends with Jack, Hiccup's not ''as'' instantly accepting of deviations from Viking norms as some might think.
*** This is further enforced by the ignorantly homophobic InternalizedCategorism Hiccup demonstrates after realizing he's sexually attracted to Jack. Having been raised in a heavily hypermasculine society with clearly defined gender roles and a major moralizing emphasis on tradition, it never ''occurs'' to Hiccup that he, or any man, could have a morally acceptable, emotionally healthy sexual interest in another man, because as far as he knows, sexual relations between men are exclusively a forced humiliating punishment and mark of shame--the implication being that if you want to do that to someone else, you're exceptionally cruel, and if you want that done to you, there's something wrong with you.
** Jack does have his issues with fitting in with human society, but not because of his inhumanity. Having lived as an invisible observer outside of civilization, Jack behaves as something of a WildChild. He sees no reason to value money or shelter or new goods beyond the simple fun and pleasure he could have with such items (he doesn't even value them for practicality, because as an immortal being, he doesn't share a human's necessities to live), and so Jack doesn't understand the discomfort his new friends have with the idea that he owns nothing but his staff and the clothes on his back. And while Jack can at times be perceptive about others' situations, he has little awareness for the expectations their society may have for him. The differences in behavior between Jack and the Vikings is what often confuses each involved party the most.

* BigDamnHeroes: Jack's StealthHiBye BigEntrance inches from Alvin's face and subsequent effortless, ''toying'' CurbStompBattle to distract from the rescue of Heather and Hiccup in Chapter 7 is probably the most badass moment so far in the fic.

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: Hiccup and Jack's small fight in chapter 10. Hiccup thinks Jack's reckless (true), and Jack thinks Hiccup's getting a bit too controlling (also true). Underlying the conflict is the fact that Hiccup has a massive crush on Jack and is thus ''crazy protective'' of him, and he feels that Jack's nonchalant risk-taking means that Jack doesn't care about how worried this makes Hiccup; likewise, Jack's been forced to be entirely self-reliant for 300 years and isn't familiar with the concept of others trying to care for him, so, oblivious to Hiccup's feelings, he takes offense at Hiccup trying to push seemingly irrational restrictions onto his behavior and then getting angry at Jack when Jack rejects them - he sees it as Hiccup not only ''not believing'' in Jack and Jack's capability to take care of himself, but usurping Jack's right to make his own decisions by demanding Jack follow his seemingly irrational orders. Jack apologizes when he realizes Hiccup was only doing this out of concern, but Hiccup still doesn't seem to fully understand why Jack was upset and internally denies that he himself did anything wrong.

** Camicazi, from the original ''How To Train Your Dragon'' novels, appears in chapter 13, though she is somewhat changed: before, she was the heiress of the Amazon-like Bog Burglar Tribe; now she is a lone burglar on Breakneck Bog and the Bog Burglar Tribe does not seem to exist.

* EroticDream: Attention is drawn to Hiccup having had them at the beginning of Chapter 9. They used to involve Astrid, and the fact that they [[HomoeroticDream don't anymore]] just adds to Hiccup's stress levels.

* HellYesMoment: Chapter 7, end of the line, bottom of the ninth, Alvin's successfully ransomed Heather and her parents' lives to capture Hiccup, Heather's been slapped with a hot blade that blinds her eye, and she's collapsed on the ground, brokenly giving up... when suddenly, a familiar "sound like windchimes" comes over the wind, it slowly begins to snow, and Heather, despite the circumstances, ''smiles.'' And with a single [[PreAsskickingOneLiner "Boo,"]] [[StealthHiBye onto the scene arrives]] [[BigDamnHeroes Jack Frost.]]

* HolierThanThou: Hiccup's a socially-awkward teen who is now frequently being validated for his nonconformist opinions in the long run regardless of anyone's initial disagreement, which unfortunately seems to have spawned a bit of this in his personality. When Hiccup thinks he's right, he thinks he's right; his stubborn streak means he rarely if ever backs down or reconsiders and his self-awareness regarding his uncommon intelligence means he can get quite condescending about it without even realizing it. For example, when he and Jack have their BothSidesHaveAPoint argument in chapter 10, Hiccup is the only one of the two not to sincerely be sorry for their part of the conflict, only apologizing because he feels he "has to" in order to make peace with Jack, and his understanding of Jack's perspective of the conflict can be summed up in this quote: "In a way [Jack] was like a child resenting rules set by adults; it didn't matter that the rules were only meant to keep him safe, only that they stopped him from doing as he pleased." Rather than respecting Jack as an equal and trying to understand why Jack regarded Hiccup's stance as such a violation, Hiccup analogically places himself as the adult who must reign in an unruly child, which is ''deeply'' condescending--especially towards someone Hiccup has romantic interest in.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Hiccup becomes increasingly protective of Jack as his feelings develop, which makes this aspect of his character far more apparent. Frequently, he's willing to put ''himself'' into danger, but becomes upset if Jack takes similar risks--which naturally gets irrational to the point of ridiculous because Jack has (as far as anyone knows) ''CompleteImmortality,'' meaning that between the two of them, Hiccup is perpetually more vulnerable and risking much more by taking on the dangerous stunts himself. Case in point, in Chapter 10, Hiccup gets mad at Jack for attempting to pet a unknown, apparently non-hostile dragon (actually a Seashocker) and accidentally getting shocked (through no apparent malicious intent on the dragon's part)--but in just the previous chapter, Hiccup attempted to do much worse with Dragon Nip to tame Nest Killer the Whispering Death, a dragon that, unlike the Seashocker, ''definitely'' was exhibiting hostility and had a history of aggression--and Hiccup, unlike Jack, is all too mortal, meaning that his insistence on taking risks himself is putting more people in danger than need be. Unfortunately, he's yet to self-reflect enough to fix this issue: though he acknowledges that he needs to apologize for getting mad at Jack, he still mentally insists he wasn't wrong and that Jack is being childish, and his decision to apologize is only motivated by a desire to keep the peace--a very condescending and self-righteous position.
** In Chapter 12, Hiccup confronts Jack about how Jack worried everybody by not telling them where he was going when he left for Glacier Island. But Jack actually ''couldn't'' tell Hiccup where he was going--because Hiccup ''wasn't there to tell.'' Hiccup himself had left without telling ''Jack'' where he was going, or even that he was leaving at all, and had even taken the rest of the Riders with him; because Hiccup had taken basically everyone who was in-the-know about Jack being a spirit with him and ''deliberately'' left Jack on his own, Jack couldn't tell Hiccup or anyone else in their group that he needed to leave. At least this time Hiccup ''realizes'' he's being a hypocrite.
** 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. Jack briefly calls him out on the hypocrisy, directly mentioning Hiccup's frustration with Jack leaving without him for Glacier Island.

** In chapter 9, Jack smiles at Hiccup while attempting to comfort him over Toothless' eradic behavior and the threat of Nest Killer, and Hiccup [[ImagineSpot imagines kissing him in that moment.]] He describes said moment as "horrifying."

* LikeFatherLikeSon: Deviating from the original canon, the story uses the unique dynamics of Hiccup's crush on Jack to delve more into Hiccup's more downplayed flaws and tendencies, which ends up highlighting a lot more similarities between him and his father than the canon versions of most episodes. They're both clever, incredibly stubborn, overprotective, socially-awkward leader-figures with a strong streak of hypocrisy when it comes to the people they love worrying them. They're sometimes incredibly difficult to reason with due to their stubborn insistence that they're right, and can delve into ignorantly self-righteous positions without realizing it. The two also seem to have similar tastes in romantic interests (sans differences in sexuality): Hiccup, despite his initial denial and subsequent self-loathing, has ever-growing romantic feelings for Jack, and Chapter 5 implies that Jack's personality and quirks ''strongly'' remind Stoick of Hiccup's mother, Valka, with enough regularity that Stoick often finds it painful to interact with him (see BirdsOfAFeather above).

* LoveEpiphany: Hiccup has a version of this trope in Chapter 8. [[FreakOut He doesn't take it well]].

* MoodWhiplash: Chapter 8: [[{{Irony}} "Normalcy,"]] details the calm aftermath of the fight over Heather's parents at Outcast Island and appears to be a BreatherEpisode; the teens play with the younger kids, Jack and Hiccup discuss their pasts, Hiccup decides to train in sword fighting... and after a short nap, Hiccup wakes to find Jack's head on his shoulder, realizes he's sexually attracted to Jack, and flees the scene in horror and self-disgust.

** For his part, Hiccup was oblivious to his ''own'' feelings until the end of chapter 8, though it was pretty obvious he had a crush on Jack before that.

* PaperThinDisguise: Played for comedy, most of the time. Jack should ''not'' have been able to pass for human for as long as he has, especially since villagers keep pointing out the physically impossible things about him... and then just ignoring them, apparently. To wit, the first and only discussed thing they find strange about him is the fact that he doesn't wear boots--despite the fact that he's perpetually ''covered in frost.'' The lack of boots alone would cost a human their toes and the skin of their soles within a day in such a cold environment. Stoick privately ponders whether Jack's human after learning he can speak to dragons during the events of chapter 5, but nothing comes of it and the more ''obviously'' inhuman aspects of Jack never seem to cause concern to the adults (with the exception of Mildew).

* SleepCute: Hiccup and Jack end up in this position after sword practice at the end of Chapter 8. Hiccup wakes up first, and the intimate position makes him have a [[LoveEpiphany startling realization]].

* StableTimeLoop: In Chapter 7, the Bear Witch drops several hints that possibly imply a future Hiccup has interfered (and[=/=]or [[TimeTravelTenseTrouble will interfere]]) with the present cast by ordering the magical compass for our current Hiccup, which would mean at least one of these is at play (the other option is that it's one of the other two Hiccup Horrendous Haddocks, who was also somehow connected to the more hidden magical side of the world and somehow acquired supernaturally specific knowledge of the distant future). Given that Jack himself is a time traveler, there may be more Loops, depending on how the TrappedInThePast conflict is resolved.

* StealthHiBye: Being fast and able to levitate and make himself weightless, Jack can easily pull these off; his BigDamnHeroes moment in chapter 7 begins when he appears from nowhere ''on top of Alvin the Treacherous's head,'' leans down inches from Alvin's face (while still upside down), and whispers "Boo."

* StunnedSilence: When Jack reveals he SpeaksFluentAnimal in chapter 5, Mildew, Stoick, and Gobber are dumbfounded. When Mildew recovers enough to suggest that Jack is unnatural, a danger, and should be killed, ''Hiccup,'' who'd been bottling up an intense amount of resentment towards the man throughout the duration of the chapter, [[TranquilFury calmly and swiftly]] ''knocks Mildew flat.'' Hiccup spends the second silence that immediately follows menacingly glaring at Mildew's unconscious body while rubbing his knuckles.

* TalkToTheFist: In Chapter 5 ("How to Speak Dragonese"), Hiccup's already furious over Mildew's attempts to kill the dragons, but when Mildew begins frantically insisting that Jack is unnatural and should be left to die, Hiccup's self-control breaks and he silences him by delivering a single punch so hard, Mildew immediately loses consciousness. This is so unexpected (for a [[BadassPacifist variety]] [[WeakButSkilled of]] [[OutOfCharacterMoment reasons]]) that it [[StunnedSilence stuns everyone else into silence]].

* ThereIsOnlyOneBed: A blink-and-you'll-miss gag in ''The Long Road'''s version of "The Heather Report" (Chapter 6) uses this trope; Stoick tells Heather that Hiccup and Jack share a bedroom, but when she enters, it's quickly apparent that there's only one bed. Her awkward reaction to this implies she concluded that they sleep together until Jack, ignorant of her conclusion, offhandedly mentions that he sleeps in the rafters. Notably, in real Viking times, it would have been perfectly normal for multiple children to share a bed, so her clear discomfort indicates she made the more... ''adulterated'' assumption.

** Stoick has a less extreme and more quiet conflict at the end of Chapter 5 where he contemplates what little he knows about Jack and what that could possibly mean. He's obviously troubled by the possible origins of Jack's differences, but also does not wish harm to come to a child just because he's different. It's clear that he's learned from what he put Hiccup through, and that his ''culturally'' constructed concept of right and moral (Viking culture) is struggling against his ''experience'' constructed concept of right and moral (he ponders on whether Jack might just be a "little different" like Hiccup - i.e. whether Stoick rejecting Jack because of his differences would be the right thing to do, or a repeat of the same mistakes he made with Hiccup).

* WeirdnessCensor: Jack, with white hair, snowflake irises for eyes, feet covered in frozen mud, and clad in foreign clothes covered in frost, calls attention to himself in the Mead Hall... and the first and only odd thing we hear the adults question is why he's not wearing boots. Subverted in chapter 5, when Hiccup, Gobber, Mildew, and Stoick all find out that Jack can talk with dragons, and Stoick legitimately considers that Jack might not be human. As of yet, nothing's come from it.

The story went dormant after 2016 with a quiet edit in 2019 before becoming active again in September of 2021.

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

** This trope is especially ironic considering how the Vikings also avert Jack's InvisibleToNormals status. They can see the weirdness, they just... don't process it as that weird, I guess?