Stoick the Vast

**Stoick the Vast** was the chief of the Hooligan Tribe, the father of Hiccup, and husband of Valka. He was also the deuteragonist — behind Toothless — of the first film and the tritagonist of the sequel.

During *Riders* and *Defenders of Berk*, his dragon is a Thunderdrum named Thornado, but Thornado was later released in order to raise three young adolescent Thunderdrums who were causing mischief on Berk and required an adult male role model. Stoick allowed him to go, knowing that it was the right thing to do, as Chief.

In the second film, Stoick has a new dragon; a Rumblehorn named Skullcrusher, whom he is later revealed to have met and partnered with during *Dragons: Race to the Edge*, Season 1. He then reunited with his wife Valka, who was believed to be dead. Near the end of the film, Stoick sacrificed himself to save Hiccup from a plasma blast by Toothless, who was under the control of Drago's Bewilderbeast. Hiccup then succeeded his father as the new chief of Berk.

## Personality

Stoick had a strong sense of responsibility and took pride in being a chief; he always tried his best to keep Berk peaceful and safe. In the episode, "How to Pick Your Dragon", he commented that he had spent his entire life on Berk and was determined to make it a better place. He had been trying to look for a reliable and suitable chief to run the village when it was his time to step down, as seen in "Cast Out, Part 1" and the second film when he said that Hiccup would be a great chief. But as a chief, he adhered to certain "Viking ways" at times, believing that it was better for the village. Stoick's predominant motto was always that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, and thus was a firm but fair ruler.

This, however, also gave him the flaw of being rather close-minded and inflexible, with a strong lack of perspective. He tended to do things the straightforward, "Viking way" and dismiss alternatives, even if it was ultimately detrimental. Furthermore, he was extremely stubborn and head-strong, making it difficult for others to change his mind when setting on a certain course. It was easy for him to get upset or emotionally riled up, which, combined with the aforementioned traits, often lead him to make rash and uninformed decisions when he thought what he was doing was right, ignoring the advice of even those he trusted the most. This mindset almost cost him most of his tribe's warriors when he decided to use Toothless to find the dragons' nest, ignoring Hiccup's warnings. Nevertheless, though this attitude made him seem unintelligent at times, he was shown to be able to listen and take advice, even use it when needed.

However, the area where his stubbornness and rigidity did the most damage was the relationship with his son. Though he cared deeply for him, to the point of being overprotective (due to Valka's presumed death), his inability to adapt rendered him incapable in connecting with Hiccup, unable to even hold a proper conversation with his out-of-the-ordinary offspring. His patriotic ways also at times lead him to act the same, dismissive way to him as the rest of the villagers, uncaring of Hiccup's opinion and callous towards his feelings. Most of their conversations consisted of Stoick talking and Hiccup trying, but unusually unable, to get a word in edgeways.

His overprotectiveness worsened things, to the point it grew to unintentional hypocrisy and counter-productiveness in his parenting methods. Though he had wanted Hiccup to be a successful Viking and future chief, at the same time he was the one who sheltered him the most from the world and any sort of experience that would have been helpful, not allowing him to even join the fire brigade when they were still fighting dragons, and giving up on his training early on. As he failed to see this, it caused them to drift even further apart, since he tended to blame his son's faults and failures solely on Hiccup, never considering his part in them.

While his years as chief had taught him to deal with certain matters tactfully, when it came to the more delicate elements, Stoick had little in the way of emotional intelligence. He often said hurtful or offensive things without intending to or even realizing their effects. Again, his son suffered the brunt of it. He didn't notice his discomfort and sadness when talking about his years of being "the worst Viking Berk had ever seen", nor the time when he openly agreed that Bucket's much more muscular depiction of Hiccup was how a chief's son should look like.

Stoick's personality had developed significantly during the first season of *DreamWorks Dragons: The Series*. He was at first still uncomfortable with the dragons, and in "In Dragons We Trust" he actually banished them from the island, and he remained relatively callous towards Hiccup. All of this changed as the series progressed. His relationship with his son steadily improved, and Stoick became more and more willing to trust Hiccup's advice.

Stoick's idea of dragons changes dramatically after he trains one of his own. Initially, he was willing to order a dragon to be killed just because it was on a rampage. ("Viking for Hire") That began to change after training Thornado, quickly rushing to Toothless aid even when the whole village disagreed with him. ("When Lightning Strikes") He was extremely attached to his own dragon and was willing to risk war with Dagur the Deranged for the sake of the dragons on Berk, preparing to attack Dagur to stop him from killing Barf and Belch. ("Twinsanity") He also treated them more like people than enemies as shown when he walked up to the Alpha Speed Stinger in "Frozen", and asked him, "Remember me?" as if he was talking to a human enemy, and referred to it as him when he ordered the Dragon Riders to get it off Berk.

Stoick was shown to be prone to aggressively taking out his frustrations on others when stressed, upset or in another particular mood, such as in "Crushing It". Only the return of his son and him bonding with a Rumblehorn was enough to snap him out of it.

## Trivia

* Stoick meet Thomas, Twilight Sparkle and their friends in *Thomas and Twilight Sparkle show How to Train Your Dragon.*

## Gallery

Stoick with his son, HiccupStoick with ToothlessStoick with his wife, ValkaStoick with his best friend, GobberStoick with AstridStoick's death