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Posting reply to How Astrid indirectly caused the death of Stoick

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puxlit 22 Jul 2014, 11:04
doeslingx
20 Jul 2014, 20:14
There's no way she could have known what she was starting. It was a gamble and it didn't pay off, but you have to remember that their situation at the time looked totally hopeless. She was playing the one card she thought she had left in their hand. [...]
To elaborate on this point, we know Astrid instigated the expedition to Drago's base to rescue Hiccup et al. on the off chance that they had been captured. When she realised otherwise—Eret blabbed about an island full of dragon riders; Drago interrogated, "How many?"; Astrid whispered, "Drago doesn't have them after all."—she had to find a way out of their predicament.

Was her gambit out of character? I doubt it. What alternatives were there? It seemed like Drago literally took no prisoners. Could she have tricked Drago? Unlikely; Drago's not an idiot. Could she have reasoned with Drago? Again, unlikely; besides, diplomacy's arguably not her style.

So, she needed to find some way to convince Drago to set them free. At the very least, she needed to find some way to stall their impending execution… She formulates a plan (and we see her explain it to Ruffnut in the background just before she launches into her speech): if Hiccup et al. are still out there, why not use them as a bargaining chip? "Free us, or our allies will find you, and destroy your armada. After all, it's not like your ships are ready, right?"

Wrong.

She didn't know Drago's armada was mobilised. She didn't know Drago had a bewilderbeast. She didn't know about Valka's sanctuary. From incomplete information, she picked the most pragmatic tactic given their desperate situation, but it backfired. Thus, it's unreasonable to heap the blame on her.