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For me one of the most interesting things i've seen about sequel. I guess this is the only source that shows the concept with Valka as a villain. And it is slightly surprising

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But for the time I was storyboarding on the film, Valka was actually the villian of Dragon 2. She was crazy. Batshit crazy. She went nuts when she found out Hiccup was the reason Toothless lost part of his tail, furious when Astrid and the gang showed up and eventually attacked Berk to free the dragons! Very different than what's in the final film.

But, again all films change. These changes were very much for the better.

So, in this first version of Drago's attack on Valka's ice fortress, you'll see that she was way less sympathetic.

In part 1, Hiccup, Stoick, Gobber, Valka have their reunion interrupted by the attack. She's going to blame Hiccup and Stoick for bringing all these outsiders to her doorstep, friend or foe, she's gonna kill them all. YIKES! Relax, Valka.

So Valka looks more like a insane and extreme crazy Dragonwoman... She didn't trust in people, even Hiccup was an enemy for her... I don't think that she was planned as a "classical villain", more much like a lost member of the family, who did not remember old days and did not know what to do now.
For me this is not an idea which is far away from what we seen in the movie. Valka was not planned as a "villain", but as a extreme "dragonish" women. Stoick as chief of the people, Valka as queen of dragons... And Hiccup between them...
What do you think?

Those were interesting.

Wait, Valka actually acting feral and crazy? Actual conflict between her and other characters? A villain in this movie with actual depth?

WHY WAS THIS CHANGED?

And please don't give me that tripe about audiences not being able to deal with the mother as an antagonistic figure. I have two words to say to that: Darth Vader. If audiences could handle the father being a villain, why not the mother? Heck, this is still showing Valka firmly in the well-intentioned extremist category with a side helping of insanity, which is way less evil than Vader was in The Empire Strikes Back (one can argue that the prequels changed him into a well-intentioned extremist, for better or for worse).

There are many movies that were in need of another rewrite. There appear to be much fewer that were in need of less rewrites, but this is proof that they exist. On the plus side, at least the final product is still good - unlike some other examples of too much rewriting - but it's frustrating to know that it could so easily have been better.

Wow..those were kinda cool..! I wonder why they didn't proceed in that direction... I guess then the parallels between this and The Empire Strikes Back would have been too obvious.

If they were concerned about that, then they wouldn't have given Hiccup that flaming sword.

Funny thing was, while I was watching the film, I did actually think that she would be some form of antagonist. I just thought that she was collaborating with Drago to bring down Hiccup, and was acting the Crazy Feral Vigilante Dragon Lady to get on his good side in order for a sort of Alvin-ish twist to occur, and she would give him to Drago to make him train the dragons. After I saw her with the absolute trust of the dragons, my theory was kinda dropping out of the sky. But it is very interesting that she was initially supposed to be an antagonist, even if not in the same way.

I know..but atleast the sword was not that similar to a lightsaber, and was in tune with Hiccup's innovative side..but revealing Valka as the villain would have made the comparisons very too obvious..and it didn't help that Dean already said he's been drawing inspiration from TESB..

Anyway, I agree that the change was done for the better. I mean, one of the best scenes in the movie wouldn't have existed if Valka had been the villain. I prefer 3 minutes of Flying with Mother over a really well developed villain any day.

DarthBacon

04 Sep 2014, 12:16

I know..but atleast the sword was not that similar to a lightsaber, and was in tune with Hiccup's innovative side..but revealing Valka as the villain would have made the comparisons very too obvious..and it didn't help that Dean already said he's been drawing inspiration from TESB..

Except that, based on the storyboards, the reveal would have been handled in the exact opposite way. The Star Wars trilogy starts with the villain, and then reveals that he's the father. In the hypothetical superior version of HTTYD 2, we would be shown the mother first, and then it would be revealed that she was a villain. It's a completely different setup.

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Anyway, I agree that the change was done for the better. I mean, one of the best scenes in the movie wouldn't have existed if Valka had been the villain. I prefer 3 minutes of Flying with Mother over a really well developed villain any day.

Really? You would not only take a pointless pretty scene over actual character depth, but you would admit to it? Well, there's something to be said for honesty, I suppose.

It's interesting, therefore, that the storyboards shown would have had very little impact on the "Flying with Mother" sequence. Seriously, I'm actually very surprised (neither pleasantly nor unpleasantly, in all honesty) at how little the storyboards would require the first two acts to be different. The only change is that Valka reacts to an invasion exactly how a feral person who doesn't trust humans would react.

The only thing I can see having to be different is the reveal of the Bewilderbeast, and thus the removal of its bits from the "Flying with Mother" sequence. Heck, even those bits could have been included as well, with only a minor rewrite.

So yeah, removing Valka's antagonistic status added nothing, took away all the interesting aspects of her character, took away everything interesting about her interaction with other characters, and left us stuck with a generic bad guy as the villain.

HTTYD 2: proof that writing is rewriting, but that doesn't mean that it can't be bad writing.

What can I say?..Toothless imitating a drawing always gets me

(I didn't just mean the scene alone. That song is one of the best ones in the soundtrack.)

Well, as I said, it's all entirely useable with the idea of Valka as a villain, with only minimal editing required either to the "Flying with Mother" sequence or the Bewilderbeast reveal. So we're right back at square one, with the original idea being way better than the final product, and all that rewriting just making things worse.