Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III

"This is Berk. It snows nine months of the year and hails the other three. Any food that grows here is tough and tasteless. The people who grow here are even more so. The only upsides are the pets. While other places have ponies or parrots, we have Dragons."

- Hiccup "This is Berk. A bit trampled, busted and covered in ice, but it's home. It's our home. Those who attacked us are relentless and crazy. But those who stopped them, oh, even more so! We may be small in numbers, but we stand for something bigger than anything the world can pit against us. We are the voice of peace, and bit by bit, we will change this world. You see, we have something they don't. Oh, sure, they have armies, and they have armadas... but we... we have... OUR DRAGONS!"

- Hiccup "By the way, it isn't really Dragon Conquerer. It's Dragon Trainer!"

- Hiccup to Alvin the Treacherous "Now do you get it? This is what it is to earn a Dragons loyalty."

- Hiccup to Drago Bludvist

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, or just Hiccup, is the main protagonist of the How to Train Your Dragon franchise. He is son Viking son of the chief, Stoick the Vast, thus making him heir to the tribe, and later the current chief of the tribe. His dragon, Toothless is a Night Fury, the rarest and most intelligent of the dragon species in the film franchise. He is voiced by Jay Baruchel. Hiccup appears in 12 books.

Appearance
His appearance is much different to his book incarnation. In the book series, and the film based off it, he is portrayed with medium length dark auburn hair and green eyes. He is not short, but he is also far from muscular and is weak compared to the other Viking teens in his class. Hiccup is usually seen in dark green pants, a green tunic that reaches to his mid-thigh, a brown belt where he also keeps a small knife, a brown vest-like fur coat, and typical Viking-style boots. At the end of the movie, Hiccup is seen with a spring-loaded prosthetic for his left leg after part of it was lost in the final battle of the film. When he is flying with Toothless, his fur coat is replaced by a riding vest that helps him to stay secured to Toothless so that he doesn't fall off. It is also revealed that when Hiccup writes and draws, he is left-handed. in How To Train your Dragon, he is 14 or 15 years old, Tv series of seasons 1 & 2, 18 year old in Race to the edge and Dawn of the dragon racers, and 20 years old in How To Train Your Dragon 2,

Personality
Despite his physical shortcomings, Hiccup does his best to succeed as a Viking. He is very intelligent as he creates inventions for various uses throughout the film, including a bola sling, a prosthetic tail, a saddle, and a riding vest. At first, however, Hiccup is almost obsessed with proving himself to the rest of his tribe; he often doesn't think things through and is more determined to gain the recognition of his peers than he is heedful of others' orders, often causing problems for the rest of the tribe, and himself. Hiccup also shows great aptitude at being a leader and strategist: he leads his dragon training class into battle, using his friends' strengths wisely in the battle against the Red Death. Hiccup also has very good observational skills which come in handy during his time with Toothless and during dragon training. For example, he is able to hypothesize that dragons have a natural disdain for eel when his own dragon companion refuses to eat one himself, and uses this to successfully drive back a Hideous Zippleback later.

Among the other teenage Vikings, Hiccup first comes off as awkward, mainly because he is a poor fighter, and rather scrawny for a Viking. As he becomes more adept at fighting dragons, however, they start paying more attention to him, some even starting to try to talk to him first. Despite this, Hiccup remains shy and secretive, preferring to be alone with Toothless. He also tends to be sarcastic with a dry sense of humor that can sometimes put him at odds with the other Vikings in his tribe.

How to Train Your Dragon
At the start of the film, 14-year-old Hiccup is an embarrassment to his father, Stoick the Vast, the chief of the Hairy Hooligan tribe. Too small to wield traditional Viking weapons and therefore unable to kill a dragon like the rest of his village, he works as an assistant to Gobber the Belch, the village Blacksmith. One night during a dragon raid, Hiccup leaves his indoor workpost and, with a bola sling named "The Mangler," manages to shoot down one of the deadliest and most feared dragons in the skies: the Night Fury.

When he goes to find his kill, after what appears to be many failed attempts, he find the dragon and discovers that it's still alive. Despite his determination to prove himself to the community as a great dragon killer, Hiccup is unable to kill it after seeing the fear in its eyes, and instead frees it.

Meanwhile, as he is looking for the Night Fury, Hiccup is enrolled into Viking training, where he is expected to learn to fight and kill dragons. At first, he struggles to complete the simplest tasks and hold his own against even the most (relatively) benign dragons, earning the usual mockery of his fellow teenagers. However, after managing to get close enough to bond with the Night Fury he shot down, which he names Toothless after its retractable fangs, he builds him a fake tail to replace the one his bola injured, helps Toothless regain the ability to fly with Hiccup's assistance, and jumpstarts their friendship. He gains valuable experience and a deeper insight into the mannerisms of most dragons, such as the fact that it is possible to scratch a dragon into submission if it is scratched gently in a certain spot under the chin. He is soon hailed as a Viking prodigy, with the time he spends with Toothless allowing him to ultimately "defeat" every dragon he encounters during training.

The stress of living this double life is hard on Hiccup, however. The other Vikings, particularly Astrid, take notice of his unexplained absences after dragon training sessions, although no one really comments on it. Eventually, after Hiccup places the top in training, Astrid manages to follow him and discovers Toothless. She runs off to tell the other Vikings, but Hiccup and Toothless stop her, flying her around the area on Toothless to calm Astrid down. It is during this ride that Hiccup sees the Green Death in the very Dragons' Nest his father has been dying to find and destroy. When they land, Hiccup manages to convince Astrid not to tell anyone about anything that happened by showing how loyal he is to his dragon. After their conversation, Astrid kisses Hiccup on the cheek after punching him in the shoulder, seeming to admire his loyalty.

The next day, Hiccup is required to fight and kill a Monstrous Nightmare as part of his final exam during dragon training. The task goes horribly wrong, however: when Stoick swings his hammer against the dragon training cage in response to Hiccup's blasphemous claims that dragons "aren't what we think they are" and that "we don't have to kill them". Hiccup's methods of dragon appeasement no longer work and the Nightmare moves in for the kill. Toothless, hearing Hiccup's scream, tries again to get out of the cove alone, and, succeeding for the first time, rushes to the scene and beats the other dragon back while at the same time revealing himself to all the Vikings. Though Hiccup attempts to explain why he went against the Viking way of life and befriended a dragon, his father fails to listen, renounces him as his son, and instead takes advantage of Toothless, chaining him to a ship and using him to reach the Dragons' Nest. As the adult Vikings leave in search of the Nest, Astrid talks to Hiccup about the entire situation and asks him what he's gonna do about it, which leads him say "something crazy." He goes off to do his 'crazy' plan, while Astrid apparently gathers the other Viking teenagers. Hiccup brings out the now tame Monstrous Nightmare, and teaches them how to ride on the back of a dragon.

While the Vikings try to fight a losing fight, the teens fly into the scene, with Gobber commenting that Hiccup is, "Every thread of a stubborn, bone-headed Viking you ever were," to Stoick, who nods numbly. Hiccup goes onto the burning ship where Toothless is, and tries to free him, but soon the ship broke apart, pulling Toothless down to the seafloor. Hiccup still fails, however, and goes limp after a few moments of trying, only to be saved by his father, who also frees Toothless from his chains. After Toothless pulls him up to land again, Stoick tells his son that he doesn't have to do this, to which Hiccup replies, "We're Vikings. It's an occupational hazrd."

In response to the familiar words, Stoick tells Hiccup how proud he is to call him as his son, just before Hiccup and Toothless fly off to confront the Green Death themselves. Hiccup manages to kill the Green Death by having Toothless shoot holes into its wings, and then diving towards the Nest at a high speed, so that after Toothless blasts a firebolt into its mouth, it cannot pull up in time. During the fight, though, Toothless's fake tail caught on fire, so as they are pulling out the last part of the plan (blasting fire into its mouth), they're running out of time. The Green Death crashes into the ground, triggering an explosion on impact. Hiccup and Toothless fly through its various spines and the flame; however, they run into the Green Death's tail at the last moment as they attempt to escape the resulting blast. The tail having fallen off, the two fall thousands of feet into the blaze below. As the village approaches the site of the explosion and finds that Hiccup is nowhere to be found, Stoick soon discovers that, even without his makeshift tail, Toothless protected the Chief-to-be from the blast by folding him in his wings. Hiccup's prosthetic leg.When he wakes up after an unknown amount of time, Hiccup is heralded as a hero in the tribe. Although he lost part of his left leg in the battle, he is fitted with a prosthetic that Gobber made, "With a little Hiccup flair thrown in it." This new prosthetic matches Toothless's makeshift tail, and clips right into place. At the very end of the film, Astrid kisses Hiccup on the lips, this time seemingly as boyfriend and girlfriend, as the rest of the village accepts dragons onto the island as pets and companions.

How To Train Your Dragon 2
Five years later, Hiccup (now 20) has made Berk fully involved in riding dragons, during his years on Berk he has made great contributions such as custom stables, all you can eat feeding stations, a full-service dragon wash, top of the line fire prevention methods, even making Dragon Races that now serve as entertainment for Berk, putting the dragon problem fully behind them. Now that his hard work has payed off, Hiccup and Toothless travel across very distant lands and uncharted territories. He is also uses this as a reason to avoid his father. Hiccup is also known as The Pride of Berk throughout the village, and Stoick believes he is ready succeed him as chieftain. This pressures Hiccup, because he doesn't think he's fully ready for such a big responsibility. He and Toothless crash-lands onto a strange new place that Hiccup names Itchy Armpit. Soon, Astrid and Stormfly catches up with the duo. As Hiccup and Astrid come across the destroyed fort of Eret, Son of Eret, Hiccup discovers that there are other Dragon Riders and hears from Eret, about the tyrannical Drago Bludvist, who is currently assembling a huge dragon army to take over the world.

Hiccup and Astrid escape from Eret's men and head back to Berk. As they arrive, Hiccup informs his father about Drago Bludvist, and Stoick quickly orders the villagers to fortify and protect the island from the "madman", but Hiccup suggests that there must be another way besides war. His father rejects this and orders the men to close the stalls and keep the other dragons under lock-and-key. But Hiccup refuses this method, and stages a mutiny by escaping from the stalls before the doors close, with Astrid following him. Hiccup heads back to Eret, and tells them that he wants to meet Drago so he can change his mind about dragons, but Stoick, Gobber and the other Riders interfere as they manage to find them. Stoick doesn't want Hiccup to go through with his plan, as he explains that Drago kills people without reason and concludes that he cannot be reasoned with. Even so, Hiccup still refuses to believe this and rebels against his father's wishes to find him.

Meanwhile, Hiccup flies over the clouds, over thinks his father's sayings and furiously screams in mid-air. Toothless becomes worried for his friend, but Hiccup promises that he'll keep him under protection no matter what. Suddenly, a figure emerges, and Hiccup thinks that it's his dad again but discovers a mysterious vigilante Dragon Rider, whom he later discovers is his long lost mother, Valka.

Hiccup wonders why Valka never had the intention to return to Berk after all these years that she survived. Valka responds that twenty years ago, a dragon broke into their house and she quickly rushed to Hiccup's rescue but only discovered that the dragon was not a vicious beast, but a gentle and intelligent creature, "whose soul reflected my own." However, Stoick spots the dragon and interferes; the dragon attacks him nearly burning him alive. Valka tells the dragon to spare him; the dragon suddenly looks at Valka while Stoick rescues an infant Hiccup. But unable to rescue Valka who is now abducted by the dragon, putting inside his mind that she was in fact going to get killed. But the dragon did not in fact harm her, and she never had the intention to return because she thought it would be safer for them, because she couldn't kill a dragon. Hiccup and his mom start over again and bond with each other more mutually this time with their dragons and enjoy the time they have.

Later, Hiccup discovers also that Valka does not have the intention to reason with Drago and decides to do it himself. Suddenly, Stoick and Gobber locate him and are about to escape the Sanctuary, but Stoick is shocked in silence to see his beautiful wife still alive and they rekindle their once more. Hiccup has never experienced such joy in reuniting with his mother and father. However, their celebration is cut short; they were unaware that Drago has set up their weapons on shore and orders the final attack on the Sanctuary. Later, the Bewilderbeasts engage on one another to determine who is truly the Alpha of all the Dragons. Unfortunately, Drago's Bewilderbeast emerges victorious. Hiccup confronts Drago, and tries to reason with him but Drago ignores his claims and orders his Bewilderbeast to kill Hiccup, which decides to send in Toothless instead. Toothless, now hypnotized, fires a plasma blast at Stoick, who manages to push Hiccup away and is killed instead. Hiccup, shocked to believe that his father has been killed, blindly yells at Toothless who got released from the Bewilderbeast's control to go away and leave them alone.

Hiccup, Valka, Gobber, Astrid, and the other Riders hold a funeral for Stoick where Hiccup says his last wishes to his father. It seems that all hope is lost, as Drago and his Bewilderbeast freeze Berk, but Hiccup becomes inspired by his mother's words, and is now determined to avenge his father and continue his legacy and get his best friend back. Flying back to Berk on baby dragons, he quickly arrives to face Drago and tries to disenchant Toothless saying he knows Toothless would never hurt him or Stoick willingly, which he amazingly succeeds. Now, Hiccup and Toothless manage to fend off Drago and his Bewilderbeast and concludes that it's over, unaware that the Bewilderbeast has them in its sights and fires at them, encasing them in a huge blast of ice. Drago feels victorious, but the huge ice explodes and discovers that Hiccup and Toothless are unharmed. Toothless, now glowing with plasma, challenges the Alpha to protect his Rider. Toothless simultaneously fires plasma blast and frees the other dragons, who are touched by the bond between him and Hiccup. Drago is shocked to believe this. Hiccup orders Drago to stand down and let this end, but Drago strongly refuses and orders his Bewilderbeast to attack but unable to as all the dragons fire at it. Toothless fires one last plasma blast which massively explodes, destroying on of the Bewilderbeast's tusks, and defeating it at the same time. The Bewilderbeast retreats to the ocean, along with Drago.

Finally, the fight is over and Toothless is acknowledged as the new Alpha. At the same time, Hiccup now crowned as the new Chief of Berk by Gothi the Elder. The dragons and villagers celebrate, and Hiccup continues his father's legacy by building a statue in his honor. Hiccup proudly announces that they may be a small community but are capable of maintaining peace and can stop those who oppose, and they have something that even the greatest invaders don't have: they may have armies and armadas but Berk has their own dragons.

Stoick the Vast
Hiccup's father is the chief of the village, making Hiccup himself the next in line to become chief. However, the two seem to be complete opposites of each other: whereas Stoick is large, strong, brawny, and the best dragon fighter in the village, Hiccup is lanky, weak, brainy, and perhaps (initially, at least) the worst dragon fighter on the island. Their relationship is strained because of these differences, as Hiccup wants to make his dad proud by conforming to Viking norms and attempting to slay dragons but ends up making things worse most of the time.

Though confused as to what to do about Hiccup's peculiarities as a Viking, Stoick is very protective of his son; he is at first reluctant to send Hiccup to dragon training for fear that he will be killed. Moreover, during a dragon raid, it is shown that Stoick, along with everyone else in the village, prefers that Hiccup stay inside and out of harm's way (though this may be because Hiccup is more of a risk to the village than the dragons are to him).

Stoick becomes proud of Hiccup when he hears of Hiccup's success in dragon training and is elated to finally have something in common with his son, although his attempt at conversation with his awkward son ended in failure. However, after his son's relationship with Toothless is revealed, their small progress with one another is destroyed. Stoick accuses Hiccup of siding with the dragons and later no longer considers Hiccup to be his son. Their relationship is later mended when Hiccup comes to the rescue of the older Vikings during their confrontation with the Green Death with the help of his classmates and the dragons used in training, showing his dad his otherwise unseen bravery and leadership. This causes Stoick to apologize for his prejudice against dragons and say that he is proud to call Hiccup his son. Stoick shows how deeply he cares for Hiccup when he believes that Hiccup is dead and mourns, apologizing for not having listened to him before. He shows great happiness when he learns that Hiccup is still alive thanks to Toothless' efforts. Later, Stoick and the village welcome Hiccup as a hero and Stoick finally accepts his son for who he is.

Toothless
Hiccup's relationship with Toothless is similar to that of the one between best friends or a pet owner and his or her beloved pet, perhaps even a sibling relationship. At first, both keep their distance after Hiccup shoots Toothless down with his bola sling invention, but their curiosity leads them to learn more about each other. Hiccup starts to observe Toothless and learns many secrets about dragons from these observations that help Hiccup advance in his dragon fighting classes. Toothless starts to trust Hiccup and even allows him to touch him, and eventually ride him. The depth of their relationship is furthered when Hiccup fashions a fake tail for Toothless, only to discover that the two need each other to use it to fly; Hiccup is needed to manipulate the fake tail while Toothless does the actual flying. Toothless is later very playful around Hiccup, and is also very protective of and loyal to him. This is shown in how before, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get out of the cove without flying, until he heard Hiccup's scream, then manages to climb out and fight off a Monstrous Nightmare in the dragon training ring before it could kill Hiccup, and refusing to leave when the rest of the village joins in on the fight, perhaps seeing them as a threat. Later, when Hiccup is knocked off of him while attempting to escape the explosion that kills the Green Death, Toothless manages to reach for and protect Hiccup by wrapping him in his wings, even without his own fake tail. Toothless is later overjoyed when Hiccup wakes up after the battle, jumping around his house with glee, and tickling him, before helping his human friend to walk on his new prosthetic leg.

Astrid Hofferson
Astrid is Hiccup's main love interest and fellow dragon-fighting classmate in the movie. At first, she is unimpressed by Hiccup and his lack of dragon-fighting skills, and often rebuffs his efforts to speak to her. Although she doesn't make fun of him like the other Viking teens, she does not seem particularly pleased about his presence in the dragon training class either, and probably thinks that he is weak. Later, however, Astrid becomes jealous and angry about Hiccup's sudden success in Dragon Training and follows him into the forest, eventually discovering Hiccup's friendship with Toothless and threatening to reveal it to the village. After Hiccup and Toothless take her for a ride, her views about dragons and Hiccup change as she sees just how amazing dragons really are as well as Hiccup's true aptitude for communicating with them. She also grows a greater respect for Hiccup when he shows his adamance in protecting Toothless, refusing to tell the other Vikings about their trip to Dragons' Nest and his friendship with the Night Fury out of fear that they would take drastic action against the dragons and kill Toothless. Astrid later tries to help Hiccup during his dragon training final exam when the Monstrous Nightmare attacks him by distracting it and later holds Hiccup back so that he doesn't get hurt when the Vikings overpower Toothless. Astrid comforts Hiccup and inspires him to round up the other Viking teens to help him with his plan to save the villagers from the Green Death shortly after they depart for the Nest. When Hiccup is believed to be dead, she shows a softer side of her, obviously mourning the loss of her friend (and potentially mutual love interest). She finalizes her feelings for him at the end of the film when she kisses him on the lips, implying that the two may have some sort of romantic relationship (proven to be true in the short, 'The Gift of the Night Fury').

Gobber
Gobber is the blacksmith of the village, as well as a mentor and secondary father figure to Hiccup. Despite acting like all of his other students are expendable or simply paying little attention to their well-being, Gobber seems to have a soft spot for Hiccup. This is obscured, however, by the methods by which he goes about expressing his fondness of the boy. Though his intentions are good, Gobber often gives out comically bad advice that somehow just makes Hiccup feel worse. Most importantly, however, Gobber acts as the bridge of communication between Stoick and Hiccup, since the two seem to be unable to listen to one another otherwise. In fact, Gobber is the one who convinced Stoick to allow Hiccup to enroll in the Dragon Training classes, reminding the latter that he could not always hope to protect Hiccup; the best he could do was prepare him. At the end of the film, Gobber is the one who constructs a new fake tail for Toothless and Hiccup's prosthetic leg.

Valka
Valka is Hiccup's mother. She was believed to be dead for twenty years and that she was taken and eaten by dragons. She was taken when Hiccup was just a baby, so he hardly knew anything about her. In the film, Hiccup was given a helmet made from her old armor. While though he found it awkward at first, it is very important to him, as seen in Gift of the Night Fury. In Breakneck Bog, Hiccup is willing to face extreme danger, and a possible Fog Monster, to retrieve a lost gift from his mother. In How to Train Your Dragon 2, Hiccup not only reunites with his mother, but learns she has been living with, and rescuing dragons. Throughout the second film, she helped him discovering his identity as a rider and a leader. In the end, Valka stays with him on Berk and celebrated along wtih Gobber, Astrid and the rest of the villagers her son's coronation as Chief of Berk. Like his father, Hiccup is shown to love his mother very much and like her to be in his life again and Valka is willingly to sacrifice her happiness for the sake of his.

Other Appearances
Hiccup has appeared in the fandom Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons or the Big Four. He is often shipped with Rapunzel (Tangled) as Hiccunzel, or Merida (Brave) as Mericcup.

Reception
Hiccup was well received for his relationship with Toothless and Jay Baruchel's voice performance in which he received an Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production. Hiccup was ranked as #26 on Empire's Top 50 Best Animated Film Characters List, calling him "a character we don't see enough of in animation: someone smart, competent and braver than he gives himself credit for" as well as saying "Hiccup's developing bond with Toothless is one of the most finely drawn friendships ever established in the genre".

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