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What do you think of Heather?
I really liked her! 17 (43%)
She's a decent character. 15 (38%)
Undecided. 2 (5%)
She wasn't that great. 4 (10%)
I hated her. 2 (5%)

Spoilers: Heather in RTTE
Topic Started: 26 Jun 2015, 23:31 (2380 Views)
VeloYourSwaggyDragon
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I am... swaggy

Let's talk about Heather, specifically about her part and character in RttE.

For my personal opinion, I liked her a lot for her strong motives and overall growth from sweet, innocent Heather to Bad-ass, independent warrior Heather. I like her as a very flawed character as well. Bent very strongly and selfishly on revenge for the attacks on her village and death of her adoptive family, she showed us the worst of her. She isn't an angel in white linen who makes the best decisions, especially for herself and her dragon (attacking Dagur's armada alone for example).

At the same time, we were shown she still has her sweet side. She took care and nursed a dragon back to health by herself with the help of the dragon-training knowledge she had learned from the other dragon riders. By the looks of how she and Windshear worked and interacted with each other, they have formed a very close bond, as close as Hiccup and Toothless and Astrid and Stormfly are. I believe she is a worthy dragon rider, more so after her thirst for revenge was dampened at the end of episode 11; she will make smarter and hopefully less selfish choices in her and her dragon's future.

She's also become a well-rounded character upon her return this season (I can tell not everyone is going to agree with this, but this is how I feel about her). We saw her converse with Astrid as they went out to have "girl-time" and we learned simple things about her, like preferences in boys, which is silly, but gives her character depth other than the sad tales of her past and the obstacles she faces still like loneliness.

What are your specific thoughts on Heather as she was reintroduced this season? What little things did you like/dislike about her?
Do you think her character could have been developed in better ways?
Do you disagree with her leaving Dragon's Edge or hope to see her again?
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Demonwolf002
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Lone Dragon

Hmm I think I'm more undecided to be honest. I don't mind her as a character never have, and I do think we got to see her character expanded upon somewhat for the 2 episodes she was in. I did feel though like we were going through some similar motions to the first time we met her. I also feel that maybe it was to predictable though as well, at least with the second part. I mean it's a fairly easy story arc to figure out. Character doesn't know who real parents are has revenge quest against another character that supposedly killed the only people she really knew as parents. Then finds out said revenge quest is actually against her on family, so then has moral dilemma about said revenge quest.

None of this means it's bad mind you like I said I did enjoy those episodes, and I do think we got more character from Heather this time around as well. But it just felt fairly obvious what was going on the second we found out she had no idea who her real parents were. It also gives us a pretty good idea that shes going to come back since we don't have an actual conclusion to that story. I would say she'd probably be back in the final episodes against Dagur, and will have some role in helping take him out. Though they may use her sooner in another fight with him. Either way that's where the writers will give us her ending.( Her last episodes in the series and why shes not around in the second movie)

Which leads nicely into my next sentence of-
I do think they also dropped a potential(potential being the key word here) hint as to how their going to write her out when the time comes since she obviously didn't stay with the riders on berk. I bring this up because they made a point of giving Dagur the line. "You'll never find out what..." So either he knew Heather was his sister in which case in their "final fight" we find out how he may have gotten rid of her and what happened to their(Dagur and Heather's) dad. In which we find out he's possibly still alive and then she leaves to go find him. Or the other case ( the one I believe to be most likely) her foster parents are still alive and she still goes off to find them. The last possibility (and the one I think least likely) is she takes over the berserkers and takes Dagur with them to try and change(or imprison) him? (Again feel this is least likely to happen)

I guess to sum it up, do I like her? I don't mind her, but I think she can be a possibly predictable character when she comes up. (and maybe hasn't been used for the strongest of storytelling in the past) Again I have no real problem with this, and I do believe her character was expanded upon decently well. So I think the episodes she was in were fine. I also believe the future episodes she's in will give us some more on her character, and will possibly be a nice rap up for her as well.
See you in the skies Dragon Rider!

The Dragon Root:Thing what I wrote.

Is Toothless Evil? :Me possibly being crazy, but fun.

The BerkCast The HTTYD podcast, you should listen.
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PigletGirl
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Dragon Egg

Personally I think there there should've been more Hiccther moments

And about her being Dagur's sister, I kinda felt a relationship between them coming but not like this. Honestly I think Hiccup would be more of the brotherly figure to Heather than Dagur could ever be. I hope to see more of Heather in the future.
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JadeSunset
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Dragon Egg

Be warned, essay ahead...

As someone who honestly did not care for Heather as a character back in the earlier season, I actually really like what they did with her in Race to the Edge. She feels a lot more complex now and her personality is more defined. Before, she seemed more like a Mary Sue: distractingly beautiful, intelligent, athletic, clever, and innocent despite her obvious manipulations. No meaningful flaws or challenges. This is also highlighted before anything is really known about her...the guys write off Astrid's concerns as jealousy simply because the plot makes it clear: Heather is inherently better (and better looking) than Astrid or Ruff.

Now, Heather has clear motivations and shortcomings. Her drive for revenge and at times cutthroat perspective is a weakness and has tainted how the others view her. Which is good; no one is perfect and characters feel unrealistic when they are portrayed that way.

This might be an unpopular opinion (don't hurt me!), but while i have gained respect for Heather, this latest interaction with her has made me lose a little for Hiccup. His interest, arguably fixation, on her has always felt way past platonic. Whenever she is around, he is unable to focus on anything (or anyone) else. He is overly eager to talk to her, touch her. These past two episodes, he was distraught over her loss of innocence and tried to not only save her life (which is expected) but to change her back to how she used to be. Considering how little time they spent together when they were younger, and that most of that time she was playing a part, it just seems weird to have that intense of a fixation on someone else. This behavior infuriated Astrid the first time and I was a little surprised he wasn't called out for it again.

If Hiccup was unattached and not maintaining a longtime relationship with Astrid (whatever they are at this point), I would still think it was strange but would expect Heather to either a) return the feelings or b) lay out a boundary that she does not like him that way. Since the movie and previous seasons continue to indicate that there is a close bond between Hiccup and Astrid with many non-platonic moments and references to his longstanding crush on her, it just feels ingenuine when he can suddenly ignore this other person who is supposedly important to him because another woman is around, without guilt or conflict.

As another poster said, I would like to see Hiccup become more of a brotherly influence on Heather; it would be good for both of them. But his feelings would have to seriously cool down in order for this to happen, and he would need to start looking at her as a person (flaws and all). It would have to be clear that he doesn't like her romantically. Considering we know that Hiccup and Astrid wind up together in the storyline, I'm hoping this transition occurs soon. It would be sad to think that Astrid was his runner up, despite everything that has happened to them over the years.
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hcsp1
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My only master is the free wind

Now that I've seen the episodes with her, here are my thoughts(Long post ahead):

I personally didn't mind Heather in the first season. She wasn't great but she didn't harm anything as well(Though, I still believe her name is a wired choice for this universe. And considering what we learned in this episode about her parents, that name makes even less sense). With that said, I liked her A LOT more in this season for the following reasons:

1) Mae Whitman. I know she also voiced Heather in the first season, but this time around her preformance felt more natural to me, and also more on par with her other voice roles like Katara and April O'Niel(Who, now that I think about it, all have something about their father in their backstory. Remind me to check what's the actress's relation with her father; I think we miss something). So, that's a plus.

2) Her dragon, Windshear, is cool. I like the almost metalic design of it and it also has some pretty neat tricks and attacks. Also, am I the only one who caught that small hint towards a relation ship between Windshear and Toothless? Maybe I'm over-analyzing it, but that's what I saw.

3) Her weapon is pretty damn cool.

4) I liked her friendship with Astrid. That girl talk was actually one of my favorite part of the episode because we got to know Heather better by knowing trivial stuff, which sometimes is more interesting than the backstory and motivations. That scene also proves something I always say; if you put two great characters in the same scene and just let them talk and be themselves, the result will probably be good. So, by making that scene work(In my opinion), we saw how good of a character Heather could be.

Now, to the twist at the end. First of all, am I the only one who had a dipshit moment and went "HOLY SHIT!" once Hiccup asked Stoick if Heather was his sister? In hindsight, that probably wouldn't make that much sense but still, kind of surprised me. Regarding the actual twist, I think it works. I mean, we did hear about Dagur having a sister in his debut episode, so it does make sense. I do hope we will see Heather again so that they could built on that more(I know she's not in the other episodes making the first 13, so maybe the next line of episodes?) because as is? We have a decent twist that pretty much went nowhere. Heather finds out Dagur is her brother, she spears him for not knowing what to do I guess, she leavs to find her place in the world. I would like more of a conclusion on that in the next 13 episodes, or the next season(There's still a 4th one right? The other 13 aren't a different season, am I correct?) because we aren't getting any answers for that in the movies, that's for sure.

One thing I don't like is that they seem to make Heather interested in Hiccup romanically but at the same time, they aren't entirely sure. I could have gotten that in the first season, since Hiccup and Astrid acted more like friends with benifits than an actual couple(Something this episode helps proving), but now that we know where Hiccup and Astrid are a year and a half after this, it's just not needed. Again, if they'll bring Heather back in the future, I hope they'll fix this and it's not just a seed they planted and not going to do anything with.

Overall, Heather saw an improvment from last time but there are still a few kinks to work out.
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Demonwolf002
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Lone Dragon

hcsp1
 
One thing I don't like is that they seem to make Heather interested in Hiccup romanically but at the same time, they aren't entirely sure. I could have gotten that in the first season, since Hiccup and Astrid acted more like friends with benifits than an actual couple(Something this episode helps proving), but now that we know where Hiccup and Astrid are a year and a half after this, it's just not needed. Again, if they'll bring Heather back in the future, I hope they'll fix this and it's not just a seed they planted and not going to do anything with.
I don't feel that it's Heather who is romantically inclined towards Hiccup but more so the other way around. But I also don't personally feel there's as much of a romantic feeling there between either of them anyways(at least this time around). More so it seems to me that their relationship is more platonic(brother and sister if you will) in nature than romantic. Or at least the show is trying to head that way with it(grumble here about the weird shot of the shadows that just seemed weird given the context). With that said though I think the show is still trying to give off this vibe that there might be some residual feelings left over(at least from one of them anyways). Which I think doesn't work considering Heather just doesn't have enough character development behind her for something like that. Nor would Hiccup have gotten to know her in any way good enough for something like this to work well at least. But with something like this in mind we also need to remember the characters themselves don't have the knowledge we do. So if the show's creators decided to work off any feelings between Heather and Hiccup. Or bring her back up to then use that to maybe strengthen Hiccup and Astrid's relationship then we kind of have to roll with it. Granted though I'm of the opinion that Hiccup having any residual feelings for Heather or vice-versa just shouldn't have been done since there just wasn't really anything there to continue on with after we last saw Heather.

JadeSunset
 
This might be an unpopular opinion (don't hurt me!), but while i have gained respect for Heather, this latest interaction with her has made me lose a little for Hiccup. His interest, arguably fixation, on her has always felt way past platonic. Whenever she is around, he is unable to focus on anything (or anyone) else. He is overly eager to talk to her, touch her. These past two episodes, he was distraught over her loss of innocence and tried to not only save her life (which is expected) but to change her back to how she used to be. Considering how little time they spent together when they were younger, and that most of that time she was playing a part, it just seems weird to have that intense of a fixation on someone else. This behavior infuriated Astrid the first time and I was a little surprised he wasn't called out for it again.
To me I didn't really get the feeling that he wanted to change her. It seemed more like he was just shocked at the change. Granted he didn't really know her much beyond the part she played so this comes off as a little less than believable. Other than that, I could maybe rationalize how his fixation (at least this time around) comes less from his feelings about her, and more from his want to protect all the riders from harm since he feels responsible for them. Since if not for him they wouldn't even be in the situation there in. But I just don't necessarily feel that this is all that genuine a defense. Since one I'm not really convinced myself and two I don't think the show gave enough to discern this.

Side note man it feels nice to not have to talk in spoilers. :P
Also @Jade you should never have to worry about people having any problem with any opinion you hold here. Other than maybe us dragging the discussion past the point it's useful. Or having to someone like me coming in and trying to play devil's advocate. :P I'd say everyone here is pretty cool with just about any opinion you may wish to share so go for it. Also Welcome! ^_^
See you in the skies Dragon Rider!

The Dragon Root:Thing what I wrote.

Is Toothless Evil? :Me possibly being crazy, but fun.

The BerkCast The HTTYD podcast, you should listen.
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hcsp1
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My only master is the free wind

Demonwolf002
30 Jun 2015, 08:09
hcsp1
 
One thing I don't like is that they seem to make Heather interested in Hiccup romanically but at the same time, they aren't entirely sure. I could have gotten that in the first season, since Hiccup and Astrid acted more like friends with benifits than an actual couple(Something this episode helps proving), but now that we know where Hiccup and Astrid are a year and a half after this, it's just not needed. Again, if they'll bring Heather back in the future, I hope they'll fix this and it's not just a seed they planted and not going to do anything with.
I don't feel that it's Heather who is romantically inclined towards Hiccup but more so the other way around. But I also don't personally feel there's as much of a romantic feeling there between either of them anyways(at least this time around). More so it seems to me that their relationship is more platonic(brother and sister if you will) in nature than romantic. Or at least the show is trying to head that way with it(grumble here about the weird shot of the shadows that just seemed weird given the context). With that said though I think the show is still trying to give off this vibe that there might be some residual feelings left over(at least from one of them anyways). Which I think doesn't work considering Heather just doesn't have enough character development behind her for something like that. Nor would Hiccup have gotten to know her in any way good enough for something like this to work well at least. But with something like this in mind we also need to remember the characters themselves don't have the knowledge we do. So if the show's creators decided to work off any feelings between Heather and Hiccup. Or bring her back up to then use that to maybe strengthen Hiccup and Astrid's relationship then we kind of have to roll with it. Granted though I'm of the opinion that Hiccup having any residual feelings for Heather or vice-versa just shouldn't have been done since there just wasn't really anything there to continue on with after we last saw Heather.
That scene is exactly what I'm talking about! That scene was like "They might... We don't know!" I've seen this trick being done in something else when a love triangle was involved(Not saying this is a love triangle here, but you get the idea) and the writers decided to have the main character have feelings to a girl who wasn't the girl he liked in the past. They made it look like that new girl kissed the main guy but we don't see for sure, so it's not official. It's almost the same here and it annoyes me here just like in the other thing...

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Rhonin
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Terrible Terror

Three years of solitude planing revenge against someone can't be good for your mental health. There were a few moments when Heather seemed about ready to go berserk(heh).

To me Hiccup seemed more worried about Heather, and wanted to help her. And to find out what caused her change, you don't change like that without good reason. Remember he knows what it's like to loose a loved one.

I'm happy to see Heather and interested to see where the writers take her story.

My least favorite thing was the fight between Heather and the riders at the beginning. Though I understand her reason, plus the fact she doesn't seem to be thinking that straight, it still seemed kind of forced.
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Skyshear
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Skyshear

Heather is just a great character. I mean she's what happens to people who end going >:( to bring people like her brother to justice. I just hope she gets another appearance, defeats Dagur and maybe even find her father, Oswald the Agreeable. I just hope Heather does not put her Deranged brother out of his misery. :P
J. L. Polacek
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Berserk Shieldmaiden
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Superior Warriorness

My opinion may be unpopular but here it goes.

I personally don't like the Heather storyline in RTTE. Her being Dagur's sister doesn't sit right with me.

When I think Dagur's sister I think of someone who is very un-Heathery.

I would've pictured his sister as a very feisty and scrappy girl with wild red hair. Perhaps not as Berserk as Dagur but still a Berserker nonetheless. About Gustav's age. Someone who has a lot of hero worship for her big brother and would do anything for him. She would be one of the very few people Dagur shows any affection for.

Then there's the sudden best gal pal thing with Astrid. Yes Astrid forgave her all those years ago but I don't know about them being BFF's now.

If they wanted to give Astrid a gal pal then why not put Ruffnut in that roll. It would've been a good time to establish Ruff as someone other than just one half of the twins.

This is just the ramblings of a Berserk Shieldmaiden though.





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