Gustav Larson

Gustav

> Ah Gustav.
>
> Gustav's catchphrase

**Gustav Larson** AKA **Gustav** is the Captain of the Auxillary Riders. He is an apprentice of the Dragon Riders and hopes to be one of them one day. He rides a Monstrous Nightmare named Fanghook. Gustav is also a huge fan of Snotlout and usually acts like him, only more annoying.

## Physical Appearance

At the age of 16, he still wears the same helmet, but now his same tunic comes with Snotlout's stitching, and he also wears Ruffnut's old vest and blue boots, Snotlout's belt buckle, and wears Astrid's shoulder guards as knee pads. On his arms, he wears Tuffnut's old cloth bracers, and around his neck, an old necklace with a dragon's claw or tooth. He was briefly seen with Dagur's old helmet in "Something Rotten on Berserker Island".

## Personality

Although young at heart, he shows a loyalty and faithfulness to his mother, despite the fact that she had traded him for a "stone of good fortune" and still remained close with her. This trait rubs off on his dragon, Fanghook, as he is loyal to Gustav. He admires Snotlout and his ability to train a dragon to the point where he gets his own dragon named Fanghook. Gustav often times mimics Snotlout's personality, although he is easily scared, mostly because he is younger, as shown twice to run away: once in "Gem of a Different Color" and he attempted to flee in "The Flight Stuff", although he was stopped by Snotlout.

Although much too young, he wants to become a Dragon Rider and often sneaks into the Training Academy to play. Even though he and his dragon, Fanghook, got off on the wrong start, both dragon and trainer show a close bond with each other.

Gustav tends to overestimate his abilities, which often gets him into trouble. He often tries to do things on his own instead of working with others, similar to Heather. Though unlike her, Gustav does this to prove himself. This usually backfires and he requires saving from his own actions.

## Biography

### Visiting the Dragon Riders

For two years, Gustav scooped dragon poop without complaining. Three years after the war with Berserkers, in "Gone Gustav Gone", Gustav, at the age of 16, went to meet up with Hiccup at Dragon's Edge, much to the annoyance of the Riders. Unfortunately, he and Fanghook were still too inexperienced. After annoying the Riders, Gustav uses the Dragon Eye, which he believes is a treasure map. He nearly gets caved in, only for Hiccup to save him. Hiccup gives Gustav a stern talking to, telling him he's too irresponsible, immature and not trustworthy to be a dragon rider. Having enough belittling, Gustav left Dragon's Edge but ended up being captured by Dagur. The two of them then struck a deal to get the Dragon Eye. Hiccup delivers it, thinking Gustav is in trouble, but soon picks up on Gustav's plan. The young Viking led Dagur to the island from before, revealing he set Dagur up for a trap, with Hiccup's help. When Dagur dropped the Dragon Eye into the chasm, Gustav jumped in after it. He, Hiccup and their dragons managed to make it out with the Dragon Eye intact. Hiccup apologized about before, stating he's still irresponsible, immature and reckless, but seeing how he dealt with Dagur, he does have what it takes to be a dragon rider, someday. Gustav then headed back to Berk.

### Becoming the Leader of the A-Team

In "Team Astrid", Gustav then joined the Dragon Riders' Auxiliary alongside Spitelout Jorgenson, Silent Sven, Gothi, Bucket, and Mulch. Together, they trained at the Dragon Training Academy under Astrid Hofferson. Gustav and Fanghook were able to hit his targets until Astrid moved the targets. Despite the hard training, Gustav, Fanghook, and the other Auxiliary riders were able to assist Stoick, Hiccup, and the other Riders in defending Dragon's Edge from Dagur's fleet. Following the attack, Gustav was given command of the Auxiliary Riders by Astrid, becoming captain of the Auxiliary Riders.

Gustav and the rest of the Auxiliary Riders then defended Berk in "A Time to Skrill", when the Frozen Skrill returned, looking for Hiccup and Toothless.

### War with the Hunters

Gustav reappeared in Snotlout's dream in "Not Lout". In the dream, Hiccup decided to replace Snotlout with Gustav as part of the official Dragon Riders, to which the dream Gustav seems extremely pleased about, boasting in Snotlout's face as is probably behavior for the real Gustav to display.

Gustav, along with the other Auxiliary members and the Dragon Riders, took part in an attack on Dragon Hunter Island in "Shell Shocked, Part 1". However, Gustav and the other riders found that it had been hit hard by something, later revealed to be the work of a Shellfire.

### Becoming Dagur's Apprentice

Gustav appears on Berserker Island as Dagur's Berserker Apprentice in "Something Rotten on Berserker Island". He shows the Dragon Riders Berserker Island's "phases". He later escaped along with the Dragon Riders and Heather during Savage's coup and tried to help Snotlout break Dagur free from jail, but he failed to do so and got captured himself. Afterwards, Snotlout rescued him and Dagur out of jail but the three of them ended up being chased by Savage's men. When Dagur suggested that the three of them should fight their way out, Gustav cowardly refused and revealed that he cheated on all the tests and lip-synced when others were singing the Berserker song, much to Snotlout's shock. After Savage was defeated and Dagur regained the throne, Gustav was shown standing behind Dagur when he was going to give a trophy to the "smartest, scariest and craziest" person on Berserker Island. Assuming that person was him, Gustav smiled in mocking demurity, and was ready to obtain the trophy, when Dagur reveals "sadly" that the person wasn't him, but was Snotlout. Gustav then looked horrified, owing chiefly to his fairly tenacious relationship with Snotlout, but claps grudgingly along with everyone else as Snotlout comes to receive his reward.

In "The Wings of War, Part 2", Gustav then assisted Spitelout Jorgenson and Hiccup in luring the Dragon Flyers' Singetail away from battle by using Deathlout to get their attention. Together they were able to remove the Flyers from the Singetails. After the Edge was reclaimed, Gustav proudly told the other Viking of his heroics during the battle against the Flyers.

## Abilities

Gustav is the youngest trainer at the Academy, and one could argue he is not the greatest either. Though he did learn some things from Snotlout. This led to him training Fanghook.

* **Dragon Training and Riding:** Gustav is the youngest trainer at the Academy. When Snotlout was convinced he was going to die, he decided to recruit Gustav to be his replacement. Snotlout taught him about mounting, respecting, feeding, and eventually riding a dragon by using Hookfang as the example. Gustav, however, wasn't very good at any of this as he was inexperienced. Snotlout's teachings did, however, influence him to attempt to train his own Monstrous Nightmare, which he named Fanghook. Over the next few years, he became a more experienced rider by himself before being trained by Astrid to become a member of the Auxiliary Team.

* **Sheep Rider:** He was able to ride a sheep, pretending it was a dragon.

* **Acting:** He had shown as a young boy to be somewhat cunning. He tricked Hiccup and Snotlout into believing that he had released Fanghook back into the wild and was able to trick Dagur into going into an unstable cavern alone only to be ambushed by Hiccup.

* **Leadership and Teaching:** As the captain of the A-team it can be assumed that the team follows Gustav's lead and have been taught more about riding from him since Astrid never completed their training.

## Trivia

* Gustav's dragon, Fanghook, is named after Hookfang, which is Snotlout's dragon.
	+ This makes the first dragon to be named after another dragon.
* Due to the error in the *Dragons: Riders of Berk* episode, "Gem of a Different Color", it is believed that Gustav and Hildegard were siblings. This is incorrect, as their mothers have different character designs. Gustav's mother incorrectly said Hildegard was her baby, though the two moms were both seen earlier.
* Gustav is the youngest Dragon Rider, though he is unofficially part of the Dragon Academy.
* Like Astrid, Heather, and Hildegard, Gustav is one of the few younger Vikings to have an actual name.
* Gustav has the same helmet and vest as Snotlout. The stitching on his tunic is the same pattern as Hiccup's. And his knee pads are similar to Astrid Hofferson’s shoulder pads
* In "Cast Out, Part 1" and *Dawn of the Dragon Racers*, a boy that bears a strong resemblance to Gustav is seen, though he has a different helmet and clothing.
* According to Art Brown and Douglas Sloan, Gustav is 12 in the first two seasons. He is 16 by the first season of *Dragons: Race to the Edge*.
* In "Something Rotten on Berserker Island", Gustav wears Dagur's helmet from *Riders* and *Defenders of Berk* when he becomes Dagur's Berserker apprentice.