Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III

**Hiccup** is the main character of the *How to Train Your Dragon* book series, the 2010 DreamWorks film adaptation and the 2014 sequel, where he is voiced by Jay Baruchel. His full name is Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, the Hope and Heir to the Tribe of the Hairy Hooligans. He is the son of the chief, Stoick the Vast, thus making him heir to the tribe, and later the current chief of the tribe. He is 15 years old in the first film and 20 years old in *How to Train Your Dragon 2*. His dragon, Toothless is a Night Fury, the rarest and most intelligent of the dragon species in the film.

## Personality

Despite his physical shortcomings, Hiccup does his best to succeed as a Viking. He is intelligent 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 obsessed with proving himself to the rest of his tribe by killing a dragon; 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. Despite this, Hiccup shows great aptitude at being a leader and a strategist: he leads his Dragon Training classmates 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's 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's 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. Despite this, Hiccup remains shy and secretive, preferring to be alone with Toothless, likely because he's unused to all the positive attention. 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. It also seems that Hiccup likes to hide his fear with said sarcasm and dry humor. Due to his shyness, he had a habit of stuttering and stammering when talking to some of the other Vikings, especially Astrid or when his father was angry at him. Despite his many virtues and his clear capabilities as a leader, Hiccup is not without his flaws. He is rather prone to letting his insecurities cloud his judgment and effect his actions; in the film, his desperation for the acceptance of his tribe, and his father in particular, cause him to regularly attempt to kill dragons along with the villagers, only to end up doing more harm then good due to his clumsiness. In the television show, his mistaken belief that Stoick still does not accept him causes him to lead the other Vikings on a potentially dangerous treasure hunt to prove himself. His innate friendliness and tendency to give others the benefit of the doubt cause him to be a little too trusting of strangers, leaving him vulnerable to manipulation and deceit by more dishonest characters, such as Heather and Mildew, on more then one occasion. In the episode *Thawfest*, Hiccup shows a more unlikable, competitive side of his personality as he begins to score victories over Snotlout. Since Hiccup is unaccustomed to winning anything, he handles it poorly, letting the glory go to his head to the point where he becomes just as arrogant and unpleasant as Snotlout. Hiccup is also prone to overconfidence in his ability as a diplomat due to being mostly successful so far, which becomes a major catalyst of the second film's story line; his total belief that he would be able to reason with Drago causes him to run away from Berk to confront the warlord, causing Stoick and Valka, who both understood and witnessed firsthand the true extent of Drago's psychopathy and knew he could not be reasoned with, to chase after him. This indirectly but ultimately leads to Stoick's death at the hands of Drago when he hypnotizes Toothless into attacking Hiccup to demonstrate the superiority of his philosophy over Hiccup's. In spite of all his flaws, Hiccup is never above admitting when he is or has been wrong, and will do his best to make amends with others.

One extremely notable character trait Hiccup possesses is a deep sense of compassion. Because of this he spares Toothless, and in doing so he changes the world of Vikings and dragons forever. He was extremely uncomfortable with the thought of having to kill a dragon in the arena later in the film. Hiccup carries this quality into the television series. He shows great sympathy to Snotlout at the end of the Thawfest Games, giving up his own glory and fame for the sake of his friend. He will almost never allow Toothless to use his full power against foes. In *What Flies Beneath*, he begs Toothless to spare a Whispering Death that had nearly killed both of them just moments earlier. The peak of Hiccup's sympathy is displayed in his releasing Mildew, the very man who had betrayed him, from an Outcast cell. Upon seeing the Outcasts take Mildew's one beloved possession, his sheep, Hiccup clearly displays pity for the old man. Unfortunately Hiccup is occasionally naïve in his sympathy, as Mildew betrayed him yet again right afterwards. Still, his kindheartedness has resulted in many a victory and accomplished the training of the deadliest dragons in the world. The one character Hiccup seems to be willing to attack and even kill is Alvin. Originally, Hiccup was more interested in avoiding him, but as Alvin's plots hit closer and closer to everything Hiccup cares about, Hiccup seems to harden in a difficult resolution. He has been seen ordering Toothless to kill Alvin when Alvin was threatening to toss Astrid off of a cliff. In the finale, Hiccup and Toothless even charged Alvin in an attempt to kill him after he had captured, threatened, and deeply insulted both of them. Although they failed in this attempt, Alvin is still one of the few people Hiccup is willing to let Toothless kill. Overall, Hiccup is an intelligent, nice and likable person who is naturally bighearted and innocent. It's shown in the sequel that he and Toothless have become "adrenaline junkies", performing tricks like free-falling. He has also gone from being a shy boy, to a confident young man, and "the greatest Dragon Master this world has *ever* seen" (as Astrid describes him to Drago Bludvist ) and he is shown to care for his loved ones, especially Stoick, Valka, Toothless and Astrid.

### Appearance

In the film, Hiccup's appearance is slightly different from the books. He's rather scrawny for his age, compared to the other Vikings, especially since he has little physical strength as he's barely able to lift a large axe, and isn't very tall, just being barely aroundAstrid's height. He has auburn hair parting to his right with minor freckles on his cheeks. If you look closely, you'll notice he has a small, white scar just below his bottom lip (which he got from when he was a baby, the night Cloudjumper took his mother away). He's usually seen wearing a long-sleeve, light-green tunic and a dark brown fur vest that matches with his boots. When he rides Toothless, he takes off his vest and wears a flying vest to help him stay on Toothless. After Dragon Training, he starts to wear a Viking helmet given to him by his father as shown in *Gift of the Night Fury,* made from half of his mother's breast plate (Stoick owning and wearing the other half). Following the battle with the Red Death, Hiccup's left leg up to his shin is replaced with a prosthetic made by Gobber with a metal foot and spring, which is accessible for flying with Toothless.

If observed closely, it can be noticed that his hair has slightly grown betweenRiders of Berk andDefenders of Berk and he is still wearing his light brown vest and boot. In Dawn of the Dragon Racers, Hiccup wear a similar type of his armor which is dark brown along a long-sleeve dark green tunic with brown arm brackets and later he wears an red orange tunic, in *Race to the Edge*.

In *How to Train Your Dragon 2*, Hiccup has noticeably grown considerably. He's now the tallest of the teens at 6'1" and his hair is somewhat scraggy and unkempt with two small braids behind his right ear. He seems to have gained a leaner, stronger build as compared to the first movie and is no longer considered a runt. His prosthetic is also different, as it's more mechanical and designed than before, making it like "a Swiss army knife for prosthesis", as Hiccup seems to have improved its ability (as he stated he would in the first movie). His outfit now is partly leather around his upper body with what appears to be a type of armor along with arm brackets that seem to all be designed by himself, making him look more like Toothless. When flying with Toothless now, he's also seen wearing a spiked masked when he glides in the air, as his outfit doubles as a squirrel jacket capable of gliding. His pants are dark brown and has straps around them with a leather boot for his right foot. He also carries a weapon, a fire blade called Inferno.

## Background

20 years before the start of the films, Hiccup was born prematurely to Stoick the Vast and his wife Valka. Although the new mother was worried that Hiccup would not survive his early birth, Stoick was confident that he would grow strong and Hiccup did indeed prosper. Valka would sew Hiccup a dragon toy with his name stitched into the sides. However, Hiccup would later become terrified of the doll, and eventually threw it in to the ocean while the family was out fishing.

One night, a dragon called a Stormcutter broke into their house, finding baby Hiccup in the cradle. Valka rushed to his rescue but the dragon was curiously playing with him, proving that everything about dragons that Valka believed in. The Stormcutter was startled when he noticed Valka's presence, accidentally nicking Hiccup on the chin with a wing claw when he turned to look her way, and approached Valka. After they had stared into each other's eyes, Stoick rushed into the scene. He and the dragon started fighting with each other, the results led to Valka being abducted by the dragon, leaving her husband heartbroken. Stoick became overly protective of his son while Valka formed a bond with the Stormcutter who abducted her, naming him Cloudjumper and became willing to spend the rest of her life staying away from Berk, including her family, fearing that her dragon might harm those she cares about.

## *How to Train Your Dragon*

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 work post and, with a bola launcher named "The Mangler", manages to shoot down one of the deadliest and most feared dragons in the skies: the Night Fury. When he goes to find his kill, after what appears to be many failed attempts, he finds the dragon and discovers that he'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 his eyes, and instead frees him.

Meanwhile, early in the day, as was he done looking for the Night Fury, Hiccup is enrolled into Dragon Training, where he's expected to learn to fight and kill dragons by Stoick, in hope that his son will man up and let go of himself. 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 his retractable fangs, he builds him a prosthetic tail-fin to replace the one his Mangler injured, helps Toothless regain the ability to fly with Hiccup's assistance, and jump-starts their friendship. He gains valuable experience and a deeper insight into the mannerisms of most dragons, such as the fact that it's possible to scratch a dragon into submission if it's scratched gently in a certain spot under the chin. He's 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 Hofferson, 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. They take her on a romantic flight around the area on Toothless to calm Astrid down. It's 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 punches Hiccup in the shoulder for kidnapping her, then she kisses him on the cheek, 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 in fear, 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 refuses to listen, and denounces 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, trying to comfort him, showing him that his refusal to kill a dragon was a strength and not a weakness as he believed and asks him what he's going to do about it, which leads him to say "something crazy." He goes off to do his 'crazy' plan, while Astrid gathers the other Viking teenagers. Hiccup brings out the now docile Monstrous Nightmare, and teaches them how to ride on the back of a dragon.

While the Vikings try to fight a losing fight against the Red Death, the teens fly into the scene, with Gobber commenting that Hiccup is, "every bit the boar-headed, stubborn 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 Red Death causes the ship to sink into the sea, pulling Toothless down to the seafloor. Hiccup dives into the water in a desperate attempt to free Toothless, but goes limp after a only few moments of trying due to lack of air. He is then saved by his father, who dives back into the sea to free Toothless from his chains. After Toothless surfaces with Stoick in his claws, Hiccup mounts Toothless in preparation to face the Red Death. Stoick apologizes to his son for not listening to him and tells him he doesn't have to partake in the battle, to which Hiccup replies by quoting his father's catchphrase, "We're Vikings. It's an occupational hazard." In response to the familiar words, Stoick tells Hiccup how proud he is to call him his son.

Hiccup and Toothless then fly off to confront the Red Death themselves and soon have the enormous dragon pursuing them into the clouds. 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 plasma bolt into its mouth, it cannot pull up in time. During the fight, though, Toothless' prosthetic tail catches 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 has protected the future chief from the fire by folding him in his wings. Stoick wholeheartedly 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 his left foot and lower shin 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." This new prosthetic matches Toothless' new left control stirrup which Gobber has redesigned, and clips right into place, as if he and Toothless were one. At the very end of the film, Astrid punches Hiccup for scaring her, then she kisses Hiccup on the lips, this time seemingly as boyfriend and girlfriend, as the rest of the village accepts dragons into the island as companions.

## Gallery

Younger HiccupHiccup (weilding his Lightsaber)