Book 3, Chapter 45: Knotted Heartstrings
Furthermore, while Haddock was indeed responsible for a large number of scientific and technical advances in the aftermath of his taming of dragons, it is inaccurate in the extreme to assign all of these advances to him. Other individuals, spurred on by the new capabilities that now existed, began to develop their own innovations and insights.
Haddock invented many things, that is without question, with a lengthy list ranging from the famous wingsuit that allowed a person to glide through the air and land safely, to the more prosaic infrastructural and production tools such as the elevator, drop-forge, and spinning wheel, but within his own lifetime, as a direct result of exposure to dragons and the possibilities and necessities they opened up, others also showed that they were capable of innovation in the right environment. The list of inventions from this period as a direct result of interactions with dragons includes such things as the barometer, the canal pound lock, buttons, eyeglasses, and stern-mounted rudders, while still others worked on refining and isolating chemical compounds and elements extracted from dragons.
More people also aided in developing the area of cartography, with leaps of innovation in surveying and mapmaking—the first "dragon's eye" maps, showing the layouts of cities and regions from above, were made within two years of Haddock's taming of dragons. And, despite the efforts of those who wish to assign him the credit, he had nothing to do with any of these beyond preparing the ground for others.
—The Genius Has No Clothes: An Alternate View Of Innovation, 1818
Tropes that appear in this chapter:
- Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: Hiccup invents the parachute (or as he calls it the fallskarm) seven hundred and forty years before it was invented in real life.
- Depraved Bisexual: Rodhlaug, in addition to raping men, also wants to make Toireasa pleasure her.
- Internal Reveal: Eret is told by Wulfhild about Berks concubinage laws.
- Mythology Gag: In a nod to the movie she's from, Mulan disguises herself as a man named Ping.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: Mulan disguises herself as a man named Ping for her envoy's expedition as they prepare to travel to Berk since an unmarried woman travelling without a chaperon would have drawn too much attention during that era.
- Undercover as Lovers: Defied. It's brought up that there was a potential alternative for Mulan disguising herself as a man, and that was Mulan and Shang would pose as spouses, but that plan was rejected.
