How to Train Your Dragon (animation)/Characters

Please keep in mind that characters and character tropes in the How to Train Your Dragon books and films should be differentiated, given that the films are significantly different from the original series. Beware of unmarked spoilers.

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Main Vikings

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III

Voiced by: Jay Baruchel

• A Boy And His Dragon: With Toothless of course.
• Adorkable
• Alliterative Name
• Badass Bookworm
• Badass Pacifist: His role in the movies, since the "Vikings vs. dragons" conflict doesn't exist in the books.
• Black Sheep: In the movies, as an inventor and scientist in a society of warriors.
• Butt Monkey: In the books to almost everyone else, and sometimes bordering on being The Woobie.
• Cowardly Lion: In the books; understandable since he's only about ten in that version.
• Deadpan Snarker
• Dork Knight
• Father, I Don't Want to Fight: Zig-zagged.
• Fluffy Tamer
• Gadgeteer Genius: Edging into this.
  • Taken even further in a deleted scene from the movie in which Astrid visits him while he's working in the blacksmith shop. It's obvious when he's faking confidence over being able to take down a dragon, but when she discovers the inventions he's working on, his demeanor becomes more relaxed in his confidence over his own work.
• Handicapped Badass: Films only though, of course.
  • An Arm and a Leg
  • Artificial Limbs
• Heroines Want Redheads: Astrid and Ruffnut sure seem to.
• I Just Want to Be Normal
• Kid Hero
• Leitmotif: Amusingly, a tin whistle is a recurring instrument in his scenes.
• Missing Mom: Averted in the books, though his mom rarely even shows up there.
• Only Sane Man: Moreso in the original books.
• Redheaded Hero
• Redhead in Green
• Speaks Fluent Animal: In the books he's able to understand and talk to dragons based on long periods of observation.
• Teen Genius: He's probably the most level-headed viking in his whole tribe. He's also good at building things and he likes learning about dragons.
• Teens Are Short: In the films, Hiccup is seen as the shortest teenager in his village.
• Took a Level In Badass: Oh, yes.
  • Even more so in the books, where he started off as a scrawny shy boy that no one notices, and is so far grown into a talented sword-fighter and dragon whisperer who's saved the Archipelago several times and is prophesied to one day become the King who will unite the tribes again.
• Warrior Prince: A given in that he's the son of the chief and grows into a Badass Bookworm.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: In the ninth book, so very, very hard.

Stoick the Vast

Voiced by: Gerard Butler

• Badass
• Badass Beard: Easily trumps all the many other beards in the movie.
• Green Eyed Red Head
• I Have No Son: Movie only; it gets better though.
• Papa Wolf
• Redhead in Green
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Takes his role as chief of Berk very seriously and is often one to lead the charge.
• So Proud of You
• The Stoic: Actually averted to a degree.
• Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Not explicitly stated but Hiccup fully knows that this is what his father thinks (at least initially).

Gobber the Belch

Voiced by: Craig Ferguson

• Artificial Limbs: In the films he has a missing left hand that he can interchange with different objects (hammers, mugs, roast spits, etc.) and he has a right pegleg.
  • An Arm and a Leg
• Blue Eyes
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Full stop in the books; less so in the movies.
• Genius Bruiser: In the movies he's the village blacksmith and no less of a badass than the other Vikings.
• Jerkass: His portrayal in the books.
• Sink or Swim Mentor
• That Came Out Wrong: Never admits so himself, but his advice never carries out the intended message.

Astrid Hofferson

Voiced by: America Ferrera

• Action Girl
• An Axe to Grind: Seems to be her weapon of choice.
• Blue Eyes
• Canon Foreigner: Present only in the movies.
• Cute Bruiser: Especially when her dere side kicks in.
• Defrosting Ice Queen
• Everyone Loves Blondes
• Expy: Of Camicazi from the books, though Camicazi's much more of a Genki Girl.
  • Isn't she moving towards Genki in the shorts?
• Gaussian Girl: Just check out her introduction.
• Hot Amazon
• I'm Not Here to Make Friends: According to Ferrera, Astrid follows the mindset of a competitive reality show contestant.
• Jerk Jock --> Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She means well in that dragon combat is a daily matter of life and death in Berk, but she is very prideful and can be rather arrogant.
• The Lancer
• Leitmotif: An excerpt from "Romantic Flight" plays during her introduction; violins are also a recurring instrument for her.
• Lethal Chef: In Gift of the Night Dragon, her Yaknog makes Snoutlout almost throw up INSTANTLY! For all her fighting talents, it would seem Astrid CANNOT cook.
• No Guy Wants an Amazon: Completely averted; it's because she's such a strong and confident warrior girl that the guys love her.
  • If you look closely enough, she's slightly taller than Hiccup.
• Peek-a-Bangs: As pointed out in the DVD commentary, her pushing back her bangs later on in the story signifies her being open with her feelings, especially around Hiccup.
• Thigh-High Boots: Wears 'em, all right, but it's impossible to tell what, if any degree of Zettai Ryouiki she qualifies for, since those boots practically cover her thigh.
• Tsundere: Type A; later more of a type B.

Fishlegs

Voiced by: Christopher Mintz-Plasse

• Deadpan Snarker: In the books.
• Demoted to Extra: While he was Hiccup's best friend in the books, he's more of a friendly classmate in the first film (he's still the only one in the class who doesn't make fun of or speak badly about him).
• Gentle Giant: Films only; in the books he's just as scrawny as Hiccup.
• Huge Rider, Tiny Mount: His Gronkle is far from tiny, but Fishlegs still is about a third of its size.
• Megane: Books only.
• RPG Mechanics Verse: Spouts these in the movie.
• The Smart Guy

Snotlout

Voiced by: Jonah Hill

• The Big Guy: With a rare dash of The Chick in the movies (he's the first one to accept dragons, setting the path for the other young Vikings to follow before the climactic battle).
  • Actually, he becomes The Chick by default; Ruffnut and Tuffnut are more effective at being The Big Guy, and Snotlout is more of a gender-swapped Faux Action Girl, since his attacks almost never work, and even when they do, he still has to be rescued by the others. And as for accepting dragons, he's really the most scared of them at first, picking up a spear to try to defend himself before Astrid tells him to put it down; he also gets worried when Hiccup lets go of his hand to leave him with the dragon.
• Hopeless Suitor: For Astrid. Even Astrid's voice actress agrees.
• Jerk Jock: He does get better though.
  • In the film. In the books he's this, period.

Tuffnut and Ruffnut Thorston

Voiced by: T.J. Miller (Tuffnut) and Kirsten Wiig (Ruffnut)

• Ascended Extra: Tuffnut, who was just another of Hiccup's classmates in the books, gets a larger role (and a sister) in the films.
• The Big Guy and Girl
• Book Dumb: As expressed in this little gem:

Tuffnut: Wait, you mean read? Ruffnut: While we're still alive?

• Canon Foreigner: In the books Tuffnut didn't have a twin sister.
• Half-Identical Twins
• Rapunzel Hair
• Theme Twin Naming

Dragons

Toothless

• Adaptational Badass: In the books he's a Basic Brown/Garden Dragon, one of the smallest, most common dragon species (the template for the Terrible Terrors in the movies) while in the films he's a Night Fury, a Lightning Bruiser phantom dragon nicknamed "the unholy offspring of Lightning and Death."
• All Animals Are Dogs: Or more precisely cats; Toothless's look in the film was inspired by the black panther and he has several cat-like tendencies mixed with canine traits.
• Badass Adorable
• Berserk Button: Don't hurt Hiccup if you know what's good for you- he made sure a Monstrous Nightmare got the message.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Movie only, where he is a Night Fury, a dark-colored species with a semi-demonic look
• The Dreaded: implied to be this to (most) vikings by The Dragon Manual.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: In the books he literally has no teeth.
  • Kind of. Toothless does eventually grow teeth near the end of the first book (though he loses them in a fight), he started out with none because he is a very young dragon.
  • Non-Indicative Name: In the movies though, he has a full set of teeth that are retractable.
• Expy: In terms of face and limb structure, he looks a lot like Stitch.
• Genius Bruiser: Night Furies are amongst the most clever dragon species.
• Lightning Bruiser: Not the biggest or most durable, but enough so that he can take some licks. His real power comes from speed, agility, stealth, and a flame blast second only to the Green Death in destructiveness.
• Handicapped Badass: In the films, where one of his tailfins is lopped off by Hiccup early on.
• Shiny Midnight Black: His body color in the movies.
• Shipper on Deck
• Silent Snarker: He takes after a certain someone.
• Wave Motion Gun: He's basically got one built into his throat. Cute as they may be, Night Furies are feared for a reason.

The Green Death

• Bad Boss: See I'm a Humanitarian.
• Big Bad: It's the one forcing the other dragons to hunt for it, driving them to attack the Viking village and pretty much the entire plot.
• Breath Weapon: Like all dragons it's got one, but it's one based on making pyroclastic clouds. Nothing near it stands much of a chance, until our heroes get into the fight.
• Establishing Character Moment: The first thing this draconian monstrosity does on-screen is swallow a Gronkle whole for not meeting its feed quota.
• Extra Eyes: Further emphasizing its monstrous appearance in comparison to the smaller, Ugly Cute dragons.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Perfectly willing to eat other dragons if given the opportunity. This is implied to be one of the reasons they're doing its bidding; if they don't, or fail to bring it enough, it will eat them.
  • In the books he eats another seadragonus giganticus maximus. That was considered massive.
• The Juggernaut: While the Green Death is chasing them, Hiccup and Toothless fly around, over and under large rocky outcroppings. The Green Death simply plows right through them.
• Kaiju: A dragon the size of a truck would generally be considered large in this setting. The Green Death can (and does) swallow those whole.
• Lightning Bruiser: It's astonishingly agile for its size when in the air. But still no match in that department to Toothless.
• Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Assuming the thing doesn't reach your boats first.
• Non-Indicative Name: It's actually more of a sort of blue-grey in color, though the name may be more to do with what happens whenever one shows up...

Other Humans

Grimmel the Grisly

Voiced by: F. Murray Abraham

• Badass Boast: "You tried your best, but you're nothing without your dragon!"
• Big Bad: He's this for the final installment in the franchise, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, despite being the Bigger Bad of the animated franchise as a whole.
• Big No: Right before he hits the water and dies.
• Brainwashed: Drugged his own Deathgrippers into obedience, so that not even an alpha dragon can break them from Grimmel's control.
• The Chessmaster: He's extremely intelligent, opportunistic, and strategic, and is able to outsmart his opponents. He uses the Light Fury as bait for Toothless and makes a trap for them with no one suspecting, he threatens to destroy everything Hiccup loves if the latter doesn't surrender Toothless (which was so that the Berkians could leave the island and become even more vulnerable), and he follows Ruffnut to New Berk (with her not even looking back) so he can capture Toothless and the Light Fury, where he threatens to kill the Light Fury if Toothless doesn't hold off his dragons. Once this happens, he seems to start to give Toothless to the Warlords, only to betray them at the last moment by pulling the chain back so they couldn't reach him.
• Dragon with an Agenda: He was hired by the Warlords to capture Toothless so they could use the latter to control all dragons and conquer the world. Grimmel, however, wants genocide on all dragons, and betrays the Warlords to do just that.
• Egomaniac Hunter: He's a dragon trophy hunter, and even has a big ego about it.
• Evil Counterpart: He's this to Hiccup, as he's basically what Hiccup would've likely become had he killed Toothless the first time they met.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Of the entire HTTYD animated franchise. He's responsible for driving the Night Furies to near-extinction, not to mention he was also hired by he Warlords who took over Drago Bludvist's (the Big Bad of the franchise) army, and has proven himself to be far more evil than them.
• The Social Darwinist: He believes that humans have always been the superior species.
• Taking You with Me: Tries to do this to Hiccup during the final moments of his life. Hiccup's rescued by the Light Fury, however.