Secrets of The Dragon Riders (HTTYD Fan-Fic)

Afterword

I can't believe I am writing this.

How To Train Your Dragon came out ten years and I remember watching it and falling in love with the friendship of Toothless and Hiccup. It was innocent, sweet and just perfect and the whole story was about standing up for what is right, regardless of the backlash. Being proud of who you are and not letting anyone changing that.

The entire first movie was a lot of firsts for me too.

It was the first movie animated movie outside of Disney that really connected with me.

It was the first movie me and my younger brother (who was five at the time) watched and enjoyed together.

It was the first movie where I fell in love with the soundtrack.

True story - Romantic Flight still remains my favourite piece of musical score ever that it has been my alarm in the morning for the past five years, never gets old and has made me a musical aficionado.

I remember when the TV series Riders of Berk first came I was excited to see the story grow. I was happy that a whole new franchise was developing and I was going to be a part of it.

I was a committed follower from the start but saw how horribly toxic the fandom was and I hated the whole Jack Frost/Brave/Tangled/HTTYD thing which was everywhere, because that was ruining two of my favourite movies for me. I never understood it or why someone thought it would be a wonderful idea it but I never believed in mixing fandoms like that because everything is unique to its own story. Rapunzel's story was unique to her, Jack's story was unique to him, Merida's was unique to hers and Hiccup's was unique to him. Their stories could never have merged as it would've undermined all of them and their destinies and there was no way anyone could say they were a fan of the characters and the movies if they did that.

Also, Rapunzel was too much chaotic energy for that group. XD

Anyway, I chose to stay away from it all. I loved the fan-art of my favourite characters but I admired it from afar.

My decision to write this fan-fic was when I was getting back into writing after having a very difficult time with it.

I remember reading some wonderful stories online and wanting to tell mine too. And then the announcement and release of How To Train Your Dragon 2.

Let me just say, I was shooketh when I saw Hiccup in that teaser trailer.

SHOOKETH!

I was excited for the movie and after watching it, I knew I wanted to write a story about the time afterwards.

At the time, HTTYD2 was supposed to be the last movie so I began planning a story.

Race to the Edge didn't exist when I first wrote LOTDR or even planned it and when I was a good chunk through, Dreamworks and Netflix we're like...uhm...nope.

Race to the Edge was wonderful and I had so much more material I could work with BUT I decided against using it because it would mean changing everything and I didn't want to do that.

LOTDR and SOTDR were my stories using well-known and loved characters and I didn't want to change it too much.

The story was originally meant to finish at LOTDR but I decided to continue because there was so much more to tell.

I've always been into Arthurian legends and stories were also that while King Arthur existed, the stories around him might have been exaggerated.

So...why not make my own version of the Arthurian legends?

It made sense to have it through the Haddock bloodline on why Hiccup felt differently towards the dragons and what better way than to have him have the soul of a dragon.

Writing SOTDR was a lot of research but I was up for it. I liked the idea of sending the riders on adventures but while I love history, the Vikings and the fall of the Roman empire was not my forte.

But to be able to write a story about the adventures I wanted the dragon riders to go was fun and creative and inspiring.

While writing, I had so many ideas of more fan-fics, from across the spectrum.

Voltron, Once Upon a Time, Pirates of the Caribbean, Descendants - all of which had plans to them, but all of them fell through.

I was happy and proud that I wrote and committed to The Pirate and the Vagabond - the spin-off series that followed Heather and Eret. It was great to write their back stories, with the limited information we had of them (at the time).

It was awesome seeing that a lot I had predicted came true not only in the final season of RTTE but also in HTTYD3 (Dreamworks, you owe me royalties! XD)

So yes, I was loving all of this but then I reached the point that yes, I loved writing and writing was fun for me and it was something I wanted to consider as a full-time job and one day, maybe be a successful author.

I envisioned my books and my stories and then, I realised, I had to be serious about this.

Fan-fics were not serious and while I enjoyed writing them, I had to focus on writing stories that were more original.

I made plans and started writing a few but I wasn't confident in my writing skills at first, but then they grew.

I got an internship writing for an online progressive digital multimedia page, aimed at empowering women (hit me up if you want details as they have so many internships including in design, community, video and marketing as well as editorial. If you want to develop your skills and you don't have experience, let me know and I'll give you the deets!)

It was through my time there (and I am still there) that I was able to develop my writing and editing skills which only helped me.

So while I had plans to write another fan-fic, it was time to be serious.

So, these fan-fics are over and there will be no more, BUT I will keep writing. Check out my articles as well as my stories on my other account. I'm not going to stop writing, just like I want none of you to stop writing, reading, designing and drawing.

Never stop doing what you love.

Writing is a part of me and I'm definitely going to start being more open about my writing journey but I want you all to join me on that.

My other account will go through some changes but the stories are going to be filled with as much passion and creativity as these fan-fictions have been.

It has been an insane few years and so many things have happened and changed in my life but one thing that remains is my love for writing.

I also want to thank all of you. You have all been by my side and stayed by my side as I have struggled with writer's block, gone through personal tragedies and struggled.

Writing fan-fics have been my escape and writing in general is my way of escaping the real world.

All of you mean the world to me and these stories are dedicated to you.

For standing by me, cheering me on, pleading me for updates, motivating me as well as the constructive criticism.

HTTYD will always be a big part of my life but this chapter is coming to an end.

Thank you for everything.

xxx