Grimmel the Grisly

### Goals

Eradicate all Night Furies in the world (failed, due to Toothless who survived).
Become recognized as a war hero for his actions (succeeded with a number of folk).
Find a formula and a species of dragons to brainwash in order to become more toughened and stubborn.
Manipulate Hiccup and his tribe into as much chaos, disgrace and havoc as possible.
Use the Light Fury as a bait to lure Toothless in order to gain full custody of the dragons.
Aid the Warlords and the Northern Alliance in their conquest and later betray them after their usefulness to him runs out.
Hunt down the last Night Fury Toothless (all succeeded).
Prove to Hiccup that friendship between humans and dragons is an illusion.
Kill Hiccup and everyone he loves.
Kill Toothless and bring extinction to the Night Furies (all failed).
Demolish Berk (indirectly succeeded, due to everyone moving away to New Berk).
Rid dragons from the human world forever (posthumously succeeded, but not in the way he expected).

### Crimes

Mass murder
Genocide
Poaching
Animal cruelty
Brainwashing
Incrimination
Breaking and entering
Blackmail
Kidnapping
Harassment
Unlawful imprisonment
Abuse
Theft
Attempted regicide
Attempted theriocide
Enforced suicide (indirectly)
Slavery
Treason
Vandalism
Arson
Accessory to cannibalism
Mass torture
Drug dealing
Unethical experimentation
Death threats
Stalking
Slander
Conspiracy
Mass destruction
Sabotage
Invasion
Crimes against humanity and dragonkind
Terrorism
Hate crimes

### Type of Villain

Genocidal Poacher

**Grimmel the Grisly** is one of the two overarching antagonists (alongside Red Death) of the *How to Train Your Dragon* franchise.

He is a ruthless, devious, and cunning dragon hunter who believes in the extermination of all dragons and he is responsible for bringing the Night Furies to near-extinction, leaving Toothless the last of his kind. He won the reputation of a hero and has his eyes set on Toothless and will stop at nothing to hunt the dragon down, putting him in conflict with Hiccup along the way. He is the cruelest, most manipulative, and greatest enemy that Hiccup and the rest of the Dragon Riders had ever faced.

He was voiced by the Academy Award winning actor F. Murray Abraham.

## Roles

He serves as an unseen antagonist in *How to Train Your Dragon* and *How to Train Your Dragon 2*, the unseen overarching antagonist of *Dragons: Dawn of New Riders*, the main antagonist of *How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World*, a posthumous antagonist in *How to Train Your Dragon: Homecoming* and the posthumous overarching antagonist of *Dragons: The Nine Realms}}*. He is also one of the main antagonists of the video game *School of Dragons*.

## What Makes Him Pure Evil?

### In General

* While he believed that humans and dragons cannot co-exist and that therefore, all dragons have to be wiped out from the world to make it a better place by killing off all dragons, despite being aware that they are sapient, this belief is ultimately only by his twisted standards, as he was willing to terrorize Berk to lure them to another island so he could kill off their dragons, as well as luring the Dragon Riders into a trap so he could burn them alive; that's also not to mention that he follows the idea that mankind is the superior species.
* His genocide of the Night Furies, while not shown on screen, can't be dismissed as usual offscreen villainy since it has a clear story impact, mainly because:
	1. The reason why he is after Toothless is that he wants to finish the Night Fury genocide he started all those years ago.
	2. The genocide on Night Furies is the reason why the Book of Dragons by Berk had no information on the Night Furies because only Grimmel was able to experience Night Furies with his own eyes and killed them all before any other person can witness them. This leads to Hiccup trying to figure out how he can approach Toothless and figure out his strengths and weaknesses himself.
	3. It is shown that Toothless was unaware of his abilities to extend the spines along his back for maneuverability or to cloak himself. This implies that most, if not all other Night Furies had been killed off by the time Toothless had hatched from his egg, leaving none to educate the young dragon on his 'hidden' abilities.
	4. It should be noted that Toothless' parents were victims of his genocide, as he is responsible for the extinction of the Night Fury race. This meant that Toothless didn't even know the extent of his abilities. This also leads to Grimmel's downfall as he underestimated how powerful Toothless is, as he didn't know Night Furies can cloak by summoning lightning/electricity from an electric storm when they absorb its plasma energy.
	5. The Night Fury genocide had an impact in the *Dragons: Race to the Edge* episode "A Matter of Perspective" because no Night Fury was able to enter Vanaheim as Grimmel killed them all and Toothless was the first Night Fury to enter the sacred resting place of all dragons, which gave the Dragon Riders an advantage they used to escape. Vanaheim is where dragons must go to the tomb for each of their species at the time they die. There is no tomb for Night Furies, likely because Grimmel wiped them out.
* Unlike other villains, Grimmel was the only villain to succeed with very few resources, as while Johann did the same, unlike Grimmel, he didn't succeed the first time in destroying Berk and driving its people elsewhere.
* While Drago Bludvist has much more resources than Grimmel by having a vast army consisting of humans and dragons (that to his Bewilderbeast is by far his most powerful dragon and Grimmel only has 6 dragons and an airship and a bunch of weapons), Drago is arguably less evil than Grimmel, mainly because he has a formerly tragic backstory about his family being killed by dragons, which made him a villain in the first place, despite said tragedy is weak in the grand scheme of things. On the other hand, Grimmel never had a tragic backstory at all and he killed a bunch of Night Furies only for fame and glory.

### Background

* He killed a Night Fury in its sleep when he first met it instead of befriending it or killing it in a fair fight, leading to his tribe hailing him a hero. As a result, he plotted to wipe out all dragons, starting with the Night Furies.
* He was successful in his Night Fury genocide and the only reason why he didn't kill Toothless is that he did not know the latter was sheltered with Hiccup, and when he learned about his existence, he was desperate to kill him. While most other villains in the franchise also attempted genocide on dragons, all of them were barely successful as none of them managed to bring an entire species of dragons into near-extinction with only one dragon living, which makes Grimmel's genocide uniquely vile for the franchise's Heinous Standards and stands out compared to other genocidal villains like Johann, Viggo Grimborn, etc.
* He was planning to dispose of the brainwashed Deathgrippers once he killed all dragons in the world as his only use for them was that of enforcers, and given their brainwashed states, they would have been unable to defend themselves. This showed he has no care for them and views them only as living tools instead of living creatures. He only showed a hint of shock that both Hiccup and Toothless managed to defeat the remaining four, and that he witnessed Toothless's hidden ability that he didn't account for or even seen before, despite his years of hunting Night Furies to near-extinction. Even if he did care for them, his delusion nature would no doubt blame Toothless and Hiccup even though Grimmel was more responsible than they are. A possible reason why he only showed a hint of shock was that as he mocked the Hairy Hooligan Tribe earlier that they are nothing without their dragons, he knows that he is also nothing without his dragons.
* He drugged the Deathgrippers into obedience against their will using their venom against them, knowing they are not immune to their venom. He also doesn't care if the venom has other effects on them. He does this using the venomous drug needles in the collars he put on his Deathgrippers, which include multiple drug needles.
* He feeds the Deathgrippers baby dragons he imprisoned, evidenced by the fact that one baby dragon was caged and he was intending to feed it to his Deathgrippers. Once he gave Ruffnut said baby dragon, he mentions that "the Deathgrippers will have to forgo dinner".

### *Dragons: Dawn of New Riders*

* He created a partnership with the future warlord Eir Stormheart, who only knew him as an anonymous trapper with the initial "G". Their dealership was that he gives her dozens of dragons for her to use against their will so that she could put them through experiments to her advantage, while she gives him a drug that can brainwash dragons for him to use to his advantage. Grimmel then conducts the experiments on them, which agonizes them and drives them insane.
* He was aware of the extreme psychological torture that all of these dragons would be put through because of these experiments, and they were also given armor to keep them under a constant state of agony and insanity to be used as shock soldiers, which itself is a fate worse than death.
* He betrayed Stormheart despite their deal and conducted these torturous experiments himself on other dragons for them to be used as his shock soldiers.
* After the Chimeragon that he captured was released from him by a scholar at Scriven Rock who found the dragon, Grimmel had his hunters burn down the sanctuary that Hiccup built for said Chimeragon as well as other dragons.

### *How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World*

* When the Warlords hired him to kidnap Toothless and bring him to them, Grimmel accepted it by killing one of their captured dragons (onscreen), a Rumblehorn, when it tried to escape.
* He releases the Light Fury, but only so he can set up an unseen trap for Toothless and the Light Fury while they are introducing each other. Along with the trap was a poison dart filled with Deathgripper venom, which is used to drug dragons.
* While it is implied he had some respect for Stoick the Vast, Hiccup's father, because both of them agreed on the danger that the dragons represented, Grimmel was oblivious that Stoick later changed his opinion. When he is called out by Hiccup for sitting in Stoick's chair, instead of showing any signs of remorse, he simply smirks at Hiccup. This shows he was only mocking Hiccup and the fact that Stoick chose a foolish decision that lead to his death, even though Stoick died protecting his son from Drago Bludvist. Alternatively, he shredded any respect he had for Stoick once he became aware that Stoick changed his mind about dragons.
* He sneaks into Hiccup's house and has several of his Deathgrippers burn it down and more areas of Berk, threatening that if Toothless is not surrendered, then he will destroy everything he loves. It's shown that at least four other houses were burned down with more of Berk being burnt, and in a deleted scene, Valka and Astrid flew over Berk and saw that Grimmel burnt it to the ground. This is a feat that even Johann failed to do. Because of his attack on Berk, the Hooligan Tribe are forced to leave the island they called home and search for a new one, which was done to have the tribe abandon their position by leading them astray so he could more easily slaughter their dragons.
* He abuses his Deathgrippers in many ways as he stuffed an apple on one of his Deathgripper’s tusks while explaining to the Warlords where Toothless might have went. In another scene, after he kidnaps Ruffnut, he threw a pencil at his Deathgrippers which almost hit one of them in the head.
* When Valka and Cloudjumper were flying back to Berk to make sure that they were not being followed, Grimmel had his Deathgrippers ambush them, but they managed to escape because he allowed them. Although he called off two of his Deathgrippers from chasing Valka and Cloudjumper, this was only so he could lure them into a trap later on.
* When the Dragon Riders attempt to apprehend Grimmel, he leads them into a trap where he signals his Deathgrippers on them so that they would burn alive through their flaming acid breath.
* Upon finding out about New Berk because of everything Ruffnut told him, Grimmel lets her leave while riding on a large baby dragon to fly over to New Berk and uses her dimwittedness to track her to the island's location as she didn't know he and the Warlords' fleet were following her to round up the dragons.
* When he arrives at New Berk, he chains both Toothless and the Light Fury, with the other dragons and their riders watching in fear. Grimmel gives Toothless a sadistic choice between calling the other dragons to help him and the Light Fury, and Grimmel killing the Light Fury, or he doesn't call the other dragons for help, and Grimmel letting the Light Fury live, and gives off said threat while pointing his crossbow at the Light Fury. It was due to Grimmel's threat that Toothless, fearing the Light Fury's life, holds off the other dragons to show he chooses the latter option, but Grimmel was likely planning to kill the Light Fury anyway later on due to his delusions about killing dragons.
* He forces Toothless to have all of Berk's dragons caged up so he can butcher them all under threat of killing the Light Fury.
* He betrays the Warlords, revealing his true intentions to kill Toothless instead of surrendering him to them as he promised. If he did succeed, then this would result in killing Toothless he’ll finish his Night Fury genocide and result in the dragons fighting each other for the Alpha title.
* When he noticed Hiccup and the dragon riders coming towards them in their flight suits, he attempted to kill the Light Fury and Toothless out of spite, but Toothless managed to get his mouth open and attempted to blast him. While he narrowly escaped the plasma blast, he made no intentions to free his Deathgrippers who were chained to it. As a result, only two of them died while being chained to it and the other two were released by Toothless’ plasma attacks.
* During the chaos, he sent two of his Deathgrippers to attack one of the Warlord's ships, killing everyone that was on the ship.
* He brainwashes the Light Fury into his control with one of his venom darts, attempted to use her to destroy New Berk, and even uses her as a living shield to make her take Toothless' blast instead of him.
* During his final battle, he lured Hiccup and Toothless into a gorge where it bought enough time for his remaining four Deathgrippers to finish them off. This would have succeeded if Toothless didn't discover his cloaking ability by summoning lightning, which resulted in the deaths of his remaining four Deathgrippers.
* When he spotted Hiccup and Toothless charging at him, he shot his Deathgripper arrow at Hiccup, knowing Hiccup would dodge it and it would hit Toothless.
* In his final moments and knowing he is going to die, he tries to kill Hiccup after the latter knocks him off the Light Fury, grabbing his prosthetic leg to take him down with him, even angrily tearing off Hiccup's flight suit armor wings and other parts of his armor along the way to ensure his demise. However, the Light Fury came to save Hiccup and Hiccup detaches his prosthetic leg, resulting in Grimmel's death.
* The threat Grimmel posed was the last straw and was what motivated Hiccup to have the dragons hide in the Hidden World from humans to avoid attracting bigger threats for both Berk and the dragons themselves. He also had the last laugh as all dragons from other tribes, including the ones from the TV series, relocated to the Hidden World. This includes some of the Dragon Rider's allies like Thornado (Stoick's Thunderdrum and first dragon), some of the Berserker Tribe dragons like Shattermaster (Dagur's Gronckle), Windshear (Heather's Razorwhip), and Sleuther (Dagur's Triple Stryke), and the Defenders of the Wing's dragon, the Great Protector (who eats their volcano lava to protect them).
* Ultimately, Grimmel's dark desire for a world without dragons has all but come true, with dragons having been largely forgotten or regarded as a myth by most humans 1,300 years later. Because of this, the series' protagonists fear that if the dragons are rediscovered by humans, this could place their lives in danger.