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“He thinks he has to lead alone… because his father had to”
That scene left me somewhat sour when I first saw it, and it still does. Valka is trying to give Astrid advice as she was the woman married to the Chief. As Chieftess one would assume Valka had responsibilities as well, and her first duty was to her husband.
But like, I don’t think Valka had the right to be coaching Astrid? First of all, the reason Stoick was left alone was because of YOU, Valka. Hiccup has this impression of his father because Valka was never there. Hiccup figures that if his father, who would always be mourning the death of his wife, could do it, so could he. And honestly, I think Hiccup doesn’t like to mess up, not necessarily that he thinks he has to lead alone. He can be in his head sometimes, but we’ve seen him incorporate other’s ideas (in RTTE which was totally not taken into account in THW) and I don’t think Hiccup has ever admitted that he thinks he has to lead alone anyway. So I’m not sure why Valka thinks she’s right. Unless it was said offscreen, but what would that matter if the audience didn’t see it.
The movie lacked any real scenes between Valka and Hiccup imo.
And then Valka suggests Astrid console him, as though Valka knows Hiccup all that well. I know she means well, and had known Hiccup for a year, but I don’t think she had the right to play parent when he’s a grown adult who’s leading the village.
I get Valka is the voice of reason like Stoick was to Hiccup and Astrid (we see that mainly in RTTE between him and Astrid), but personally, she didn’t earn the right to give advice regarding the son she left behind for twenty years.
You wanna play wise parent now? Too late.
Again, I know she means well and is able to recognize her husband’s challenges in her son, but I just think the conversation was unnecessary. Astrid already KNOWS what to do with Hiccup. Astrid’s really the only person that can get Hiccup to spill and he’s always honest with her. Astrid knows how to handle him, and she knows how to communicate. Heck, Astrid knows Hiccup better than Valka does.
I’m sure the writers must’ve realized too late that there weren’t any scenes between Valka and Astrid (which sucks because I feel like Astrid would hold some resentment towards her on Hiccup’s behalf, and that would’ve been an interesting conversation) and they needed to come up with a scene. I don’t see Valka as wise as Stoick was. She’s cool yeah, and this post wasn’t made to bash her, but her character overall was just not handled right from the start.