In ‘Dire Straits’ Hiccup nearly drowns, has even clearly stopped breathing for a good few seconds, and needs assistance when attempting to stand up. He can’t stand on his own without help from Fishlegs and Toothless.
The very next episode is ‘The Longest Day’, which starts with Hiccup still on Berk after he has send the other Riders back to Dragon’s Edge ahead of time while their leader is still at their home island for reasons that are not mentioned in this episode.
Clearly, we can only come to one conclusion.
They are hinting that Hiccup needed to stay on Berk and recover. For all the crap that he’s been through in Race to the Edge, this time Hiccup actually needed to take it easy for once because he nearly drowned and needed time to recover.
Pretty sure ‘The Longest Day’ is also one of the only episodes of RttE that starts with the Rider(s) already on Berk and about to leave as opposed to just arriving on Berk for a mission. For example, the routine removal of a Scauldron.
That image of both Fishlegs and Astrid helping Hiccup up to his feet stabs me multiple times in the heart. If I were Snotlout and saw this, I would get majorly pissed off too. But at the same time, look at how careful they’re being!
The Dutch title for ‘The Longest Day’ is ‘Een Lange Dag’, which translates to ‘A Long Day’. The Dutch title for ‘Darkest Night’ is ‘De Langste Nacht’, which translates to ‘The Longest Night’. There is no reason for me to share this, I just thought this was a fun little fact.
Enjoy my elegant screencaps of Gobber and Hiccup.
Oh yeah, I definitely agree with you. Hiccup being still on Berk in The Longest Day is a hint/implication that Hiccup had to recover after his drowning. I mean he was so bad off in the images you share, can barely walk, the chest clutching, all that jazz. I mean, you don’t just go through something like that and… not need time to recover. That was a serious physically traumatic thing to happen. Gothi or Stoick (or both) probably wanted to make sure he didn’t like, get pneumonia or something as one of the complications of near-drowning include that. (Or assuming he got that and had to recover from it.)
And you know the gang likely stayed on Berk for as long as possible with him until, like day 8 of the Midnight sun (when The Longest Day begins). They wouldn’t want to leave him until they felt comfortable that he was ambulatory and seeming much better.
So if we assume that the midnight sun begins within a week of Dire Straits ending, then Hiccup’s been on Berk for at least two weeks by the time The Longest Day begins. But that’s conjecture/headcanon.
I love Race to the Edge. It’s subtle hints like this that bring more realism to a world in which fire breathing dragons live. Actions of both heroes and villains have consequences and it makes the journey of the Riders all the more perilous.
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