Well met, my fellow Furians! Today we'll be discussing headcanons as to why Snotlout is so short compared to the other Riders — particularly when his father and other relatives are so vast in comparison.

As to whether I have any headcanons for that, I actually do.

Genetics.

I mean, we've never seen Snotlout's family besides Spitelout, so we don't know what his mother, his siblings, or any in his extended family look like. However, as I'm sure you know, not everyone inherits most if not everything from their parents genetically. In some ways, I look like my dad, in others my mom. However, me, for example, take after my grandpa and uncle on my mom's side and my great-grandpa on my dad's side — really long, really lean, and really lanky, all arms and legs. lol XD

So it would make sense that Snotlout would take after someone from his extended family, either on his mom's or dad's side. Perhaps an uncle or a grandparent. Or even a great-grandparent. Contrary to what writers think, genetics is actually more complicated than one supposes. One can't control what genes we'll pick up during conception. It's what makes us all unique, after all.

Fun fact: Snotlout's size (5′6) is the average height of historical Nordic peoples (which, for some reason, made them still taller than other Europeans). So the others would've been abnormally tall — giants, even, some of them.

However, genetics isn't the only reason Snotlout could be short. It could either be alternate reasons or a combo.

For instance, they WERE born during the Dragon Wars, food must've been scarce off-and-on, depending on the severity of the raids and how much food the Tribe was able to store. The first five years that the whole Gang was born must've been pretty severe since they're the only teens in their age group to have made it to 15 (though that's because of animation and plot purposes; in real life, there would've been far more as families were more bigger, albeit the mortality rate would've still been high). For some reason, the Tribe cooks communally rather than individual families like normal people (maybe as a consequence of the Dragon Wars?). If that's the case, then their food would've been rationed. Of course, as you know, lack of food for extended periods can end up stunting growth in growing adolescents. Which can explain why all of the teens are rather on the small or scrawny side compared to their elders (except for Fishlegs, who's a yak compared to the other Teens, which makes me think that his family must be wealthy in order for him to get that way, not to mention his continuous supply of fur tunics, which would be EXPENSIVE).

Another reason could be poetic justice for all the years he'd been a mean, insufferable, impudent, egotistical, bullying piece of dragon dung to everybody. I mean, it had to catch up to him eventually. lol XD

I'm sure there are other reasons/headcanons as to why Snotlout is short, but I can't think of any at the top of my head. However, my main headcanon is genetics. Needless to say, his book counterpart would be unimpressed. XD

I hope you found this educational and fun, if nothing else. Thank you for reading and I'll hopefully be posting more articles on a more consistent basis.

Until next time!

— Noctus Fury

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Word Count: 570 words

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Date Published: 05/25/21