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Arrogance, Innocence, and Patience, more commonly known as Shadow, are the three heads of the Deadly Shadow who is the riding dragon of Fishlegs in the books. Arrogance is the head on the right, Patience is the middle one, and Innocence is the left one. They belonged to Termagant until she died, and now they are the riding dragon of Fishlegs.

Biography[]

With Termagant[]

Arrogance, Innocence, and Patience were formerly the riding dragon of Termagant, an heiress to the Murderous tribe. They both shared a very close relationship, and although Arrogance, Innocence, and Patience couldn’t understand Norse, they still mutually understood each other. Arrogance, Innocence, and Patience promised her that they would protect her baby, Fishlegs, when she was forced to send him out to sea in a lobster pot. However, they lost baby Fishlegs when a thick mist fell. Despite this, the dragons stayed out in the open ocean for days looking for Fishlegs. Yet when they return, they find that Termagant has died from the difficult birth and the grief of sending her new-born out to sea.

With the Dragon Rebellion[]

During the Second Dragon War, the Deadly Shadow was one of many thousands of dragons that rallied to the call of the Red Rage and subsequently joined the Dragon Rebellion in their fight to exterminate humanity, their reasons being a hatred of humankind born from how they chose to pin the blame for Termagant's death on her tribesmen, as well as a desire to forget their lose, which Patience claims the Red Rage certainly helped them to. To this end, they and their leader, Furious found they shared a similar reason as to why they joined the Dragon Rebellion, both of them having once loved a human (in Furious's case, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock II) dearly yet eventually losing that human as a result of other Vikings and as a result, they were ultimately summoned by Furious to the conquered Isle of Berk, where the Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus gave them the task of assassinating Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, believing them to be a kindred spirit.

Despite this belief, Furious nevertheless questioned Arrogance, Innocence and Patience as to whether they could assure him of success when so many others had failed to kill Hiccup, who's acts of dismantling dragon traps Furious warned the three was even gaining Hiccup the sympathies of some dragon rebels. Patience, however, acting as the trio's spokesdragon, assured Furious that the demise of Termagant had left him, Arrogance and Innocence with a poisonous hatred of humankind, satisfying the dragon. Furious subsequently reiterated that Hiccup must perish, which the three heads of the Deadly Shadow answered in a united assurance that Hiccup then would die at their hands, lifting off into the air and departing from Berk.

Arrogance, Innocence, and Patience subsequently tracked Hiccup down to Prison Darkheart, first discovering his abandoned helmet, which they detected to contain the scent of the Stink Dragon, a smell Arrogance noted would make the heir to the Hooligans laughably easy to track down. Yet when they tracked Hiccup to Prison Darkheart, they found his bed abandoned as Camicazi had just tried to smuggle Hiccup out of the prison. When they did finally find him, Arrogance, Innocence, and Patience also found he was wearing Fishlegs' lobster-claw necklace, and thought he was Fishlegs. They told Hiccup the story of the necklace while Hiccup tried to get them out of a trap. Later, when they rescued Fishlegs, they became his riding dragon.

Since then, Shadow has been a part of the Companions of the Dragonmark.

How to Seize a Dragon's Jewel[]

Hiccup opts to stay and find Fishlegs, and orders Camicazi to take Eggingarde back to her mother. The next morning, Hiccup's helmet is found, forcing him to reveal himself to Alvin and the Witch. They forced him to look for the Jewel in his Sand-yacht, the Hopeful Puffin 2, which Camicazi hid herself in. To their dismay, Hiccup is kidnapped by the invisible Deadly Shadow and is about to be killed by it.

The middle head of the Deadly Shadow (Patience) notices Fishlegs's lucky lobster necklace around Hiccup's neck. The Deadly Shadow decides to help Hiccup look for Fishlegs as it was his mother's dragon. As they land at the place Eggingarde described as the place where Fishlegs was taken, they find his lobster-pot-cum-rucksack and believe that he is dead. Since Fishlegs is dead, the Deadly Shadow decides to kill Hiccup as they made a promise to Furious.

A dragon trap activates, trapping the Deadly Shadow. Hiccup frees the Shadow, but the Monster of Amber Slavelands takes him to its lair. Deducing the monster is related to the Burrowing Slitherfang, Hiccup plays dead in order to strike the Monster at its weak spot in the middle of its head. After killing the Monster, Hiccup discovers the Jewel in its lair, along with a half-dead Fishlegs.

After the Deadly Shadow rescues them, Valhallarama once again attacks Hiccup and the gang and takes both Hiccup and the Jewel to Alvin and the Witch. In the Prison, the Witch tries to convince Valhallarama to surrender the Jewel and Hiccup, but she remains silent. She explains her past Questing career and her Quest to find the King's Things and also gives a speech about Hiccup's cause, ending it by placing the Slavemark upon her head and renaming it the Dragonmark. A fight ensues between the Company of the Dragonmark (the slaves) and Alvin's army. The Dragon Rebellion joins them and chaos erupts. The Company of the Dragonmark retreats to the Bog-Burglar Islands as Hiccup tries to rescue Toothless and the Wodensfang from Alvin. He succeeds, only to have Alvin steal the Dragon Jewel from him. As Hiccup and the gang retreat to their secret hideout, Hiccup discusses his failures with the Wodensfang and about Furious's words he will bring dragons to their final oblivion. The Wodensfang comforts Hiccup and tells him it will be alright, but secretly wonders if Hiccup is right. He looks to the stars and decides he has to trust Hiccup and hope for the best.  

How to Betray a Dragon's Hero[]

Arrogance, Innocence, and Patience hid along with the rest of the Companions of The Dragonmark: Hiccup, Camicazi, Fishlegs, Windwalker, Stormfly and Toothless in the very beginning of the book in Termagant's Underground Treehouse in the Murderous Mountains, which Termagant made when she was a little girl.

How to Fight a Dragon's Fury[]

Physical Appearance[]

Arrogance, Innocence, and Patience are light green with yellow spikes on their neck and claws and bright red eyes. However, Arrogance is the darkest green and has the longest horns, while Innocence is the lightest and has the shortest.

Personality[]

Each head has a specific personality. Their names were given to them due to their personalities.

Innocence: The left-most head, very compassionate. She cares for Fishlegs the most throughout the books.

Patience: The middle head. Spares Hiccup when he sees the lobster claw necklace. He is named quite appropriately as patience is what he has to have in order to deal with the other two heads.

Arrogance: The right-most and most violent head of the three. Tends to block all emotions for friends.

Abilities and Skills[]

  • Each head was capable of independent thought and speech in Dragonese, though whether or not they also have triple the other body parts of normal dragons is unknown.
    • Additionally, in most pictures displaying them being ridden, each head seems to have it's preferred rider (Camicazi on Arrogance, Fishlegs on Innocence and Hiccup on Patience).
  • As with all Deadly Shadow dragons, Arrogance, Innocence, and Patience have the ability to turn themselves invisible.
  • They are regarded as one of the fastest riding dragons in the Barbaric Archipelago, along with Snotlout's Hurricane and Hiccup's Windwalker, as stated in How to Betray a Dragon's Hero.
    • "Luckily, Windwalker, the Deadly Shadow, and the Hurricane were some of the fastest riding dragons in the Barbaric World, only the Silver Phantom flies faster, so they just about kept ahead of the screaming, spitting, howling horror of the Dragon Rebellion in pursuit."
  • They are also shown to have the ability to produce both fire and lightning from their fire holes, and their smoke is said to have a calming effect on its rider.
    • "Luckily, Deadly Shadows give off a calming hormone in their smoke when they are in an action situation, and breathing in milky clouds of steam drifting out of the three heads of the gentle giant beneath him gave Fishlegs the strength to remain calm and to focus."​​​​                                                                                                                                                    -How to Betray a Dragon's Hero

Relationships[]

Trivia[]

  • They are the only Deadly Shadow dragon with three heads in the Archipelago.
  • Despite the dragon always being referred to male, in the twelfth book, Innocence is revealed to be a female (needs citation).
    • In the franchise, all single dragons with more than one heads are just one gender, unlike the books.

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