Astrid Hofferson

"It's only fun if you get a scar out of it."

- Astrid. "What you're searching for isn't out there, Hiccup. It's in here."

- Astrid giving advise to Hiccup.

Astrid Hofferson (simply known as Astrid) is the tritagonist of the How to Train Your Dragon franchise. She is a Viking warrior of Clan Hofferson of the Hooligan tribe. She's smart, striking, beautiful, and her determined and strong personality makes her hard to impress. Astrid is Hiccup's longtime girlfriend by the time of the sequel, later wife. In spite of her initial fall outs with Hiccup and disdain toward dragons, Astrid ends up becoming his lifelong confidante, thanks to Toothless, and quickly adapts to a life with dragons.

She is voiced by America Ferrera, who was also the original voice for Fawn.

Personality
"Astrid, 20, is the self-assured, competitive champion of the Dragon Races and Hiccup's longtime girlfriend. Beautiful despite herself, she's tough and rational, providing Hiccup with a blunt voice of reason while remaining his most outspoken supporter. A strong sense of duty defines Astrid to the core. She will always do what must be done without regard for herself. So when trouble threatens the people and dragons that she loves, Astrid stops at nothing to defend them, even if though that means going rogue and defying Stoick's orders."

- Astrid's description. Astrid is dutiful and immensely devoted to her cause. She used to be patriotic of the Viking way until dragons became an integral part of Berk. Competitive by nature and highly dedicated, Astrid works hard to achieve her goals. In How to Train Your Dragon, she pushed herself to become a better fighter. After bonding closely with Stormfly, Astrid’s focus shifted to becoming a masterful dragon rider. In the sequel, she is the champion of the Dragon Races.

Astrid is emotionally driven, and as a warrior, sworn to protect those she holds dear. In "Team Astrid" she blamed herself for Dagur’s attack on Berk despite being fully aware she couldn't have done anything to prevent it. Her guilt and responsibility toward her family probed her to take immediate actions. In "Fright of Passage", Astrid’s innate pride and sense of duty drove her to face the Flightmare on her own, without any regard to herself. Even as an adult, Astrid is willing to go rogue and defy direct orders to ensure the safety of her loved ones.

Though lessened with maturity, she can be short-tempered and somewhat of a perfectionist at times, especially true before the integration of dragons. Further exacerbated by her emotional personality, this can lead her to act impulsive and irrational. In the first movie, Astrid was solely focused on training and the war, often isolating herself and ignoring the other teens. When Hiccup began surpassing her, she grew visibly upset over his sudden improvements. Fueled by jealousy and suspicion, she started to follow him discreetly, eventually leading her to interrogate him in the cove.

Astrid grew more even and level-headed upon entering adulthood, though is still shown to be quite fiery under intense circumstances. On "Race to the Edge", she exhibited vulnerability, gentleness and was much less prone to violence; preferring capture-missions over kill-missions. She had also become more openly talkative and closer to her fellow riders. Astrid could still come across as a little prideful and dismissive at times as pointed out by Ruffnut, but she was also able to own up to her mistakes, yet again demonstrating a never-ending will to improve herself. In the following episode, "Shock and Awe", Astrid pulled a prank on the twins as payback for 'Loki’s Day', showing significant growth in her playful side.

She has also proven to be greatly reliable and is Hiccup's most loyal supporter. Her methods of encouragement varies but she rarely outright give him the answer to his problems. Instead, she boosts up his confidence and stands by him as he walks through the solution at his own pace. Her supportive nature also extends well beyond Hiccup. She has often shown compassion to the rest of her peers, and has especially let Heather confide in her on numerous occasions. Although her loyalties are steadfast, in "Snow Way Out" Astrid had to hold back information from Hiccup at Heather's request. She struggled deeply with guilt over it as she had never lied to him before.

By the time of "How to Train Your Dragon 2", Astrid has adopted an optimistic and relaxed outlook on life. Although slightly cheeky and overconfident at times, she is more emotionally secure because of her steady relationship with Hiccup. Her sense of adventure and exploring is also apparent, but her ongoing competitiveness and rigid approach to grave situations remains. As an adult, she is generally more spirited and playful, and loves to goof around with Hiccup, Stormfly, and Toothless.

Physical Appearance
Astrid is petite for a Viking, but is given the advantage of agility because of this in Dragon Training. She has long, blonde hair wrapped in a braid down her back, bangs that initially cover the left side of her face, and a metal-studded, leather band across her forehead. In the first movie, Astrid wears a striped steel-blue sleeveless shirt, tan cloth bracers on her arms (each bit of cloth goes between her first and second finger) with arm wrappings above them, a red skirt with spikes surrounding it and another black skirt underneath the spiked one, and dark blue leggings. She also wears a belt decorated with silver skulls with a pouch tied to it and shoulder pads. Her weapon of choice is a double-edged battle axe, which might previously have belonged to her mother.

In "Dawn of the Dragon Racers" and "Race to the Edge", Astrid's wears a tight blue shirt and her top red skirt has less spikes on it, and her black skirt underneath is replaced with a red skirt. She still wears the same shoulder guards (this time, with a red leather holster strap holding them in place) and arm wrappings but now has red leather kneepads on her leggings. Her hair is still kept in a French braid but her bangs have been cut off in length, no longer covering half her face, and comes with a side braid behind her ear. Astrid has also stopped wearing kohl around her eyes.

In "How to Train Your Dragon 2", Astrid's appearance is more elegant and feminine. She now wears a red sleeveless shirt with a dark spiked skirt that matches her boots. Her hair is more sun-bleached and neatly styled in a lengthy side-braid draped over left her shoulder. Astrid also wears a fur hoodie, usually cloaked over her back and shoulders along with metallic shoulder pads and a matching silver belt lined with small skulls. Her usual arm-wrappings are, however, replaced with large, thick bracers covered in fur. Astrid still carries an axe but it's considerably different in design than her previous ones. It's very likely Hiccup has made her a new axe.

Astrid's overall look throughout the franchise is heavily inspired by her dragon Stormfly. All of her skirts are covered in spikes similar in shape to Stormfly's spines. The tan spines also match Astrid's blonde hair and arm wraps. Stormfly's complexion is primarily blue with some specks of red, quite similar to the colors of Astrid's outfits.

Background
From an early age, Astrid began working on to restore her family's honor as well as to earn validation as a warrior. During a flashback in "Fright of Passage", a five year old Astrid was shown attempting to take care of the Flightmare by herself. She was quickly stopped by her uncle Finn Hofferson who told her this was not a battle for her yet. Finn then decided to confront the dragon on his own, leaving his niece watching in concern from afar.

Astrid didn't see the outcome herself but heard from onlookers that her uncle froze in the Flightmare's presence. She considered stepping in, but was held back by Gobber who informed her that her wee axe would be useless against a dragon. Unable to accept what had occurred, and the shame bestowed upon her family's name, Astrid settled to plan for vengeance for the next time the Flightmare would appear in ten years.

Although while her favorite uncle's demise certainly weighs in, Astrid's Viking warrior status is primarily based on the Hoffersons being a decorated warrior family.

How to Train Your Dragon
Astrid is first seen at the beginning of the film during a Dragon raid, helping by putting out fires with Snotlout, Fishlegs and the twins Ruffnut and Tuffnut, while Hiccup (doing an introductory narration) introduces her to the audience. After Hiccup is sent home by his father, Astrid is among the group but does not join in their mockery of Hiccup.

She is later seen with the other students in Dragon Training, along with Hiccup. During their first encounter with a Gronckle as their first lesson, Astrid is shown to be the star pupil as the other students are knocked out of the lesson one by one. Later, in the Great Hall, the other students mock Hiccup's performance and Astrid voices disapproval as well as she is disappointed by his inability to stay focused and listen to higher orders.

Gobber hands the students the Dragon Manual for the group to study and Astrid is one of the only ones to have read it besides Fishlegs and Hiccup. During the student's next lesson - this time against a Deadly Nadder in a labyrinth - Astrid again comes out on top. Angered with Hiccup getting in her way, she is quick to scold him by saying that they're about to inherit their parents' war and tells him to figure out what side he fights for. That night, Astrid is listening to Gobber's stories about dragons with the others when she notices Hiccup suddenly leave without saying anything. Although curious, she thinks nothing of it.

At the next lesson, the students are facing a Hideous Zippleback in paired teams: Astrid with Ruff, Hiccup with Fishlegs and Snotlout with Tuff. Due to Snotlout and Tuff's jeers, Astrid and Ruff lose their buckets of water, which they needed to douse the Zippleback's spark-breathing head. While Hiccup loses the last bucket of water, Astrid is shocked to see Hiccup somehow frighten the Zippleback back into its cage by merely motioning to it. As the lessons progress, it soon becomes apparent that Hiccup is becoming better and better, always seeming to have a way with the dragons and exerting control over them. He soon overtakes Astrid as the star pupil, which stirs up jealousy within her. After one particular lesson, Astrid vents her anger in the forest by throwing her axe into trees when she sees Hiccup sneaking around. She attempts to follow him but loses sight of him through the foliage.

The following night, Astrid hears crash from Hiccup's stall at the blacksmith shop and finds Hiccup is "Acting weird -- well, weirder" and then suddenly disappearing, further deepening her doubt.

Not long after, Astrid and Hiccup are the only students left in the race to see who gets the right to slay their first dragon. They are faced with the Gronckle when she threatens Hiccup to stay out of her way. Despite Astrid's best efforts, she still ends up losing when Hiccup immobilizes the Gronckle in little to no time at all. The Viking Elder, Gothi, denies Astrid the right to kill the Monstrous Nightmare and instead gives it to Hiccup.

This time, Astrid manages to follow Hiccup to the cove he's been visiting after training, along with her trusty axe. Astrid then begins interrogating Hiccup on the real reason for his sudden improvements in Dragon Training as well as his riding vest which he has never shown in public. Astrid then notices the figure of Toothless which appeared to alarm her, as she pushed Hiccup down with her as she dove to the ground to protect him, but before she can recognize Toothless, Hiccup distracts her by admitting that he is "through with the lies" as well as "making outfits". He grabs her hand and this causes Astrid to react aggressively.

Thinking that Astrid is a threat to Hiccup, Toothless charges out with a loud and aggressive roar and is about to attack. Hiccup grabs Astrid's axe, casts it away and stops Toothless in mid-pounce by telling him that Astrid is a friend. After an introduction to one another, during which Toothless snarls at her, Astrid realizes that the reason Hiccup had beaten her in Dragon Training was that he had befriended a dragon, which was the hated enemy of the Vikings, and runs off presumably to tell on him. But in the middle of the forest, she is snatched up and placed screaming on the pinnacle of a tree by Toothless and Hiccup where he asks for a chance to explain.

She refuses to hear any explanation, yet Hiccup manages to talk her into letting him show her instead and she climbs onto Toothless behind Hiccup (Toothless snarls at her as she gets on). Hiccup tells the Night Fury to gently land. However, Toothless is not so tame as that and deliberately scares Astrid with daring flying maneuvers until she finally apologizes to Hiccup. Toothless finally stops and takes her and Hiccup on an extraordinarily brilliant flight above the clouds and Berk. She gradually becomes more comfortable with Hiccup and even rests her head on his shoulder. Astrid is amazed by the flight and what she sees, realizing just how wrong she was about dragons.

During the flight however, when reminding Hiccup of the oncoming event on which Hiccup "Will have to kill a dragon", Toothless suddenly flies towards parts unknown and the group soon find themselves in a flock of dragons carrying their kill and food towards none other than the Dragons' Nest. Astrid and Hiccup are shocked to discover the dragons steal and raid from the village to feed a monstrous dragon called the Red Death in order to avoid being eaten themselves.

When they get back, Astrid wants to tell the village about what they saw but Hiccup manages to talk her out of it for the time being, fearing the other Vikings will kill Toothless. Impressed by Hiccup's persistence on keeping Toothless a secret and his loyalty to Toothless, she agrees and suddenly punches him on the arm "for kidnapping her" before kissing him on the cheek "for everything else."

The next day, Hiccup has to take his final exam and is expected to kill his first dragon, the Monstrous Nightmare. Astrid wishes Hiccup good luck and agrees to make sure the Vikings don't find Toothless if something goes wrong, but adds, "Just...promise me it won't go wrong." to which he never gives an answer. She watches as Hiccup faces the Nightmare and tosses aside his weapon, shield and helmet, intending to show the Vikings the truth about dragons. But Stoick, infuriated by his son's traitorous behaviors, screams for the match to stop and strikes the handrail of the ring.

The noise frightens the Nightmare, driving it to attack Hiccup, which is exactly what Hiccup tells Astrid he's worried about. Astrid gets into the arena and tries to help Hiccup escape but ends up in danger as well until Stoick gets into the ring to help them. Astrid manages to clamber out but Hiccup ends up in the Nightmare's claws before he's saved by Toothless. Toothless fights off the Nightmare but won't leave Hiccup, thinking the Vikings are threats and almost kills Stoick in the process. The Vikings swarm Toothless and Astrid has to stop Hiccup from interfering so he doesn't get hurt. Later she hears that Stoick disowns Hiccup.

Astrid attempts to comfort Hiccup for his losses after the Vikings set sail for the Nest and the deadly Red Death which the Vikings aren't aware of. She asks why Hiccup didn't kill Toothless that first chance, saying she wants to remember what he says. Hiccup finally tells her that he didn't because at that critical moment, he saw that Toothless was just as scared as he himself was; for him it was like looking in a mirror.

Astrid rounds up the other students and Hiccup teaches them enough about riding and controlling the various dragons. Astrid stops Snotlout's attempt to grab a weapon when training the Monstrous Nightmare. Finally they fly off to rescue their tribe from the Red Death which has broken out of the Nest to attack. Astrid sits astride the Deadly Nadder and drops off Hiccup so he can free Toothless from his chains while she goes to help the others fight the Red Death.

Astrid and Stormfly nearly end up getting eaten and she's knocked off her dragon. Thankfully, she's saved as Toothless catches her, and she enjoys a heart-quaking flight upside-down. Hiccup drops her off as he and Toothless lead the Red Death into the sky where they fight it and send it plummeting to its doom in a massive, fiery explosion.

When it seems that Hiccup has died in the fight, Astrid is brought to tears at seeing the sight before her. When Stoick announces that Hiccup survived, she is overjoyed at the news. When Hiccup finally wakes up back on Berk to a new village of dragons and Vikings living together (along with his prosthetic leg), Astrid punches him on the arm again for scaring her and then kisses him on the lips tenderly. Aside Stormfly, Astrid joins Hiccup, Toothless, and the other Vikings with their dragons as they soar together into the sky.

How to Train Your Dragon 2
Astrid is first seen in the beginning of the film, where she participates in dragon racing with her friends on Berk, during which she emerges victorious. During the race, Hiccup's father Stoick happily refers to her as "My future daughter-in-law," which suggests that he wishes them to get married. After winning the race, she then almost immediately flies off to find Hiccup and Toothless, eventually catching up with them on an island in the remote areas of Berk (which Hiccup has labeled Itchy Armpit). Hiccup reveals to her that he has been avoiding his father who has pressured him to become Chief. The news of Hiccup becoming Chief makes Astrid overly excited, but Hiccup is unsure if he is ready to take on such a duty. As Hiccup begins to doubt himself, claiming he is not like his father and hasn't met his mother since he was a baby, Astrid tells Hiccup what he is searching for is not out there, but inside himself.

After discovering the destroyed fortress of Eret, Son of Eret, and hearing about the tyrannical Dragon God by the name of Drago Bludvist, they fly back to Berk to inform Stoick of what they have heard and witnessed. Stoick then orders the villagers to fortify and protect the island from a potential attack as Hiccup chases after him in a desperate attempt to reason with him, with Astrid following them. Astrid persuades Hiccup not to go back to Eret, only for Hiccup to give her a light kiss on her cheek before flying off on Toothless as the hangar doors are closing. Astrid flies off on Stormfly to catch up with Hiccup, barely managing to fly through the closing doors, seconds before they shut. They return to Eret to try to stop him from capturing dragons. Just then, Stoick and other dragon riders catch up to them, and Hiccup decides to go find Drago himself to try to reason with him. After he flies off on Toothless, Astrid mounts Stormfly as she prepares to follow him, but Stoick stops her, instead ordering her to lead the riders back to Berk before she can even take off.

Later, when Hiccup fails to show back up at Berk, Astrid thinks Hiccup was captured by Drago and his men, unaware that Hiccup is actually with his long-lost mother, so she kidnaps Eret so that he can show them the way to Drago. At first Eret declines, but Astrid drops him from a great height before getting Stormfly to catch him, scaring him into taking them to Drago. The group is captured shortly after arrival and sentenced to be executed. Eret then defects and assists Astrid in freeing Stormfly. After Astrid finds Hiccup, she is relieved and asks him where he has been. Hiccup then tells her about his mother Valka and she is surprised and in disbelief to see her still alive. Soon, Stoick is killed by Drago and his Bewilderbeast using a mind-controlled Toothless. Arriving at the scene of Hiccup and Valka crying over the dead body of Stoick, she rushes over to Hiccup and places her comforting arm on him tenderly while he is crying on Stoick's hand. Drago's Bewilderbeest then takes control of all the other dragons - including Stormfly - and heads for Berk with a much larger dragon army. Astrid and the others shoot flaming arrows onto Stoick's ship to give the chief a funeral. She then listens as Hiccup declares that he will continue his father's legacy and that they will go back to Berk, defeat Drago, and rescue Toothless and the other dragons. They fly back to Berk riding on baby Scuttleclaws, who are immune to the Bewilderbeast's control.

During the final battle against Drago and his Bewilderbeast, Astrid cheers Hiccup on as he and Toothless face off against the evil self-proclaimed "Dragon God". After Hiccup and Toothless return the dragons back to their side and defeat Drago and his Bewilderbeast, Astrid is happily reunited with Stormfly and hugs her. She walks over to Hiccup, happy to see what he has finally found, reminding him that it was inside himself what he had been searching for, as she had told him earlier. She teasingly pokes his chest, causing the glide fin on his back to pop out, and they both laugh. Hiccup then pulls Astrid into another kiss, saying, “Come here, you.” After the kiss, she celebrates as Hiccup is coronated the new Chief of Berk.

Trivia

 * Astrid's surname, Hofferson, is actually a surname for boys meaning "Son of Hoffer". Astrid's surname for girl, in a traditional Norse Viking way, is supposed to be Hofferdottir (daughter of Hoffer).