Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III
Hiccup from the book series.
Vital statistics
Name	Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III
Title(s)	Hiccup the Useless; Hiccup the Useful; The Hope and Heir to the Tribe of the Hairy Hooligans; The Dragon Whisperer
Gender	Male
Dragon	Toothless (Night Fury/Common or Garden Dragon)
Friends/Allies	Fishlegs; Camicazi; Astrid Hofferson (film)
Faction	Hairy Hooligans
Status	Alive
Location	Berk
Family
Father	Stoick the Vast
Mother	Valhallarama
Grandfather	Old Wrinkly
Cousin	Snotface Snotlout
Uncle	Spitelout
Other	Hiccup Haddock II (great-grandfather); Grimbeard the Ghastly (great-great-grandfather)
Out-of-Universe Information
Voiced by	Jay Baruchel

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III is the main character of the How to Train Your Dragon book series and the 2010 DreamWorks film adaptation, where he is voiced by Jay Baruchel. He is a member of the Hairy Hooligan tribe, which is never referred to by name in the film. He is son of the chief, Stoick the Vast, thus making him heir to the tribe. His dragon, Toothless, is a Common or Garden Dragon, though in the film is a Night Fury, the rarest and most intelligent of the dragon species in the film.
Hiccup is planned to return, along with Toothless, in How To Train Your Dragon 2 on June 20, 2014.

Contents 1 In the Books 1.1 How to Train Your Dragon 2 In the Film 2.1 Physical Appearance 2.2 Personality 2.3 Role in the Film 3 Relationships

In the Books

How to Train Your Dragon

Hiccup is shown as small and gangly with freckles and unruly red hair. In the first book, his age is 10 1/2. As the chief's son, he is expected to be heroic and strong, but it takes him a while to prove his worth to the tribe. In order to be initiated into the Hairy Hooligan tribe, Hiccup and the rest of Gobber the Belch's class of young boys have to travel to Wild Dragon Cliff, climb into a cave of sleeping dragons, and catch one. Unfortunately, Fishlegs wakes all of the dragons up when he reaches for a Deadly Nadder, so Hiccup gives Fishlegs his dragon as the others flee and rushes back into the cave to get a dragon of his own. He grabs Toothless; a tiny, toothless Common or Garden Dragon. Hiccup tries to train Toothless by talking to him in Dragonese and manages to train him enough to pass the initiation test by telling him jokes. However, during the test, Toothless's jealousy gets the better of him, leading to a massive dragon-fight. Hiccup and the rest of the young boys are banished from the tribe for their lack of control over their dragons until he later saves both the boys from exile and the village from certain doom when he leads the rest of the Hooligan boys, the Meathead boys, and their dragons in a fight to stop two Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus (the Green Death) from eating the tribe. For his heroic efforts, Hiccup is then given the title "Hiccup the Useful" and is considered a fearsome dragon warrior.

In the Film

Physical Appearance

Hiccup's appearence is much different to his book incarnation. 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.

Personality

Despite his physical shortcomings, Hiccup does his best to succeed as a Viking. He is smart and is constantly

creating 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.

Role in the Film

At the start of the film, 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. (But the ultimate prize is the dragon that no one has ever seen. They call it the - "Night Fury!" "Get down!" . . .This thing never steals food, never shows itself, and - never misses.)

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 prosthetic 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 Red Death in the very Dragons' Nest his father has been trying 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 humbly. 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 hazard."

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 Red Death themselves. Hiccup manages to kill the Red 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 prosthetic 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 Red 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 Red 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 future chief from the fire by folding him in his wings. Stoick whole-heartedly apologizes to Toothless, and is deeply thankful to the dragon for bringing his son back to him alive.

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 when he and Toothless fell into the fiery cloud, he was fitted with a prosthetic that Gobber designed and fabricated, "With a little Hiccup flair thrown in it." This new prosthetic matches Toothless's new control stirrup, 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.

Relationships

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 Red 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 prosthetic tail for Toothless, only to discover that the two need each other to use it to fly; Hiccup is needed to manipulate the prosthetic 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 Red Death, Toothless manages to reach for and protect Hiccup by wrapping him in his wings, even without his own prosthetic 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.

Their friendship is also strong in Gift of the Night Fury when Hiccup crafted a new tail for Toothless so he can

fly on his own. Toothless takes off, and only later Hiccup finds out why. When Toothless comes back, Hiccup finds out he took off to find his helmet. At the end Toothless trashed his new tail showing that he wanted to need Hiccup for him to fly.

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 Red 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, Gift of the Night Fury where she kisses him again and gives him a hug, and he calls her "Milady").

Gobber the Belch:
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 prosthetic tail for Toothless and Hiccup's prosthetic leg.

The other important role Gobber filled was training Hiccup as a blacksmith and leatherworker, which gave the imaginative teen an outlet for his mind along with practical design and fabrication skills. If an invention of Hiccup's fails, it's only because inexperience affected the design, never because of faulty parts, or that the parts were poorly crafted. Hiccup's innovation, improvement and engineering of his society's technology for his creations is often nothing short of sheer genius.