Astrid Anderson/Franchise

## Life On Berk

After being recruited to put out fires during a dragon raid, Astrid helped along with Snotlout Jorgenson, Fishlegs Ingerman and the twins, Ruffnut Thorston and Tuffnut Thorston, while Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III marveled at her skill, and how much "cooler" her job was than his. After Hiccup was sent home by his father, Astrid- along with the rest of the group- mocked him for his failures.
Later, Astrid joined the other students in Dragon Training, along with Hiccup- much to their dismay. During their encounter with a Gronckle as their first lesson, Astrid proved herself to be the star pupil as the other students were knocked out of the lesson one by one. She was shown to take pride in her family name and aspire to the station of a great warrior. Later, in the Great Hall, the other students mocked Hiccup's performance and Astrid too did not hesitate to criticize him.

That evening, Gobber the Belch gave the Dragon Manual to the group for them to study. Astrid, despite being initially keen to read it, had second thoughts when Hiccups suggested that they "share"- Astrid hastened to say that she had "read it". During the student's next lesson—this time against a Deadly Nadder in a labyrinth—Astrid again comes out on top. Angered with Hiccup getting in her way, she is quick to berate him by saying that they're about to inherit their parents' war and commands him to figure out what side he fights for. That night, Astrid was listening to Gobber's stories about dragons with the others when she noticed Hiccup steal off on his own, without giving notice to the others. Although her curiosity was aroused, she did not pursue the matter.

At the next lesson, the students faced a Hideous Zippleback in paired teams: Astrid with Ruffnut, Hiccup with Fishlegs, and Snotlout with Tuffnut. Each team was equipped with two buckets of water, which they needed to douse the Zippleback's spark-breathing head. After being doused with water by Snotlout and Tuffnut, who mistook the girls for dragons, Astrid and Ruffnut lose their buckets of water due to Snotlout and Tuffnut's jeers, with Tuffnut saying that they thought the girls were a dragon. Snotlout quickly cut him off, saying that "there is nothing wrong with a girl with a dragon-esque figure." Astrid however, remained angry that her water had been knocked from her hands, obliterating her chance of taking down the dragon. While Hiccup lost the last bucket of water due to a poor throw, Astrid was shocked to see Hiccup somehow frightening the Zippleback back into its cage merely by motioning to it. As the lessons progressed, it soon became apparent that Hiccup was becoming better and better, always seeming to have a way with the dragons and exerting control over them. He soon overtook Astrid as the star pupil, which stirred her jealousy and anger even further. After one particular lesson, Astrid busied herself venting her anger in the forest by throwing her axe into trees, when she saw Hiccup sneaking around. She attempted to follow him but lost sight of him through the foliage, only maddening her further.

The following night, Astrid heard a crash from Hiccup's stall at the blacksmith shop and found Hiccup "acting weird—well, weirder". She was further riled as she attempted to talk to him on the subject of his strange behavior, but found him being apparently yanked back into the stall and- when she looked round the door- he had disappeared without a trace.

Not long after, Astrid and Hiccup found themselves the only students left in the competition to be the dragon slayer, the two of them having proved the most promising at killing. They were again faced with the Gronckle, during which time Astrid hissed to Hiccup a warning, to "stay out of her way", afraid as she was of him stealing her glory once again. Despite Astrid's best efforts, she found to her amazement that she had lost when Hiccup immobilized the Gronckle in several seconds. Astrid threw a rage and quit upon seeing this and began to throw her axe around, smashing things, distressed at how her best efforts had come to waste simply because of Hiccup. The Viking Elder, Gothi, denied Astrid the right to kill the Monstrous Nightmare and instead gave it to Hiccup. The scene ended with Astrid glaring bitterly at the victor.

Determined not to give up, Astrid managed to follow Hiccup to the cove he had been visiting after training, bringing along her trusty axe. Hiccup was shocked to see her there but Astrid demanded answers on Hiccup's strange actions and sudden talent, both in Dragon Training and in general. Astrid then began interrogating Hiccup on the real reason for his sudden improvements in Dragon Training. She believed that perhaps he was training with someone in the village to become better at killing dragons, stating bitingly that it "better not involve this", and pointing to Hiccup's riding vest. Suddenly, Astrid gasped as she heard a growl and a rustle from the cave where Toothless was hidden: she tried to peer round Hiccup, in order to get a better look at the cave. In an attempt to prevent her from stumbling upon Toothless as she stalks past him, Hiccup lied the admission that he had been "making outfits", and told Astrid that he's "through with the lies". Astrid, despite being furious and hitting him with her axe, was at least stopped in her tracks, and turned to leave.

At that moment, thinking that Astrid is a threat to Hiccup, Toothless charged out roaring and Astrid screamed at Hiccup to "get down". She rolled to the ground bringing Hiccup with her, despite his protests that Toothless was a friend. Before the Night Fury could attack, Hiccup grabbed Astrid's axe, casting it away and stopping Toothless in mid-pounce having told him that Astrid was a friend. After a grudging introduction to one another, during which Toothless snarled mistrustfully at her, Astrid realized that the reason Hiccup had beaten her in Dragon Training was that he had befriended a dragon, and ran off to tell the villagers. But in the middle of the forest, before she could make it, she was snatched up and placed screaming on the pinnacle of a tree by Toothless and Hiccup where he asked for a chance to explain.

Astrid snarls that she's "not listening to anything he has to say", but being terrified all the same, awkwardly clambered onto Toothless' back. Hiccup told the Night Fury to land- gently, so as not to scare Astrid further. Toothless promptly performed the polar opposite of the command, shooting into the sky and climbing high then descending at speed, performing a complex flight of terrifying drops, rolls and flip maneuvers until the terrified Astrid apologized. Toothless finally stopped and took her and Hiccup on an extraordinary scenic flight above the clouds and Berk. She gradually became more comfortable around Hiccup and even went as far as to rest her head on his shoulder. Astrid was amazed by the flight and what she saw, and realized just how wrong she was about Toothless- and Hiccup as well. She began to comprehend, in those brief few minutes, how incredible dragons are, and even reached down to pat Toothless' head, in reply to which the Night Fury grinned back at her.

As Toothless flew away from Berk, Astrid asked Hiccup what he was going to do "for his final exam" when he would be forced to "kill a dragon". For the latter part of the sentence she tactfully changed her voice to a whisper, so as not to upset Toothless, demonstrating just how much the young Viking had become aware about dragons, and how she had come during the flight to see the Night Fury as a friend. Before Hiccup could reply, Toothless suddenly dived into a mist having heard a strange low warbling noise, and the group soon found themselves amidst a flock of dragons carrying their kills towards the Dragons' Nest. Astrid and Hiccup were shocked to discover the many dragons stealing and raiding from their village were in fact doing so to feed a monstrous dragon called the Red Death, "in order to avoid being eaten themselves", as Astrid put it.

When they returned, Astrid wished to tell the village about what they saw but Hiccup managed to talk her out of it, fearing what the other Vikings would do to Toothless. Impressed by Hiccup's persistence on keeping Toothless a secret and his loyalty to Toothless, she agreed and suddenly punched him on the arm "for kidnapping her" before kissing him on the cheek "for everything else."
The next day, Hiccup, having been nominated by Gothi, had to pass his final examination by killing his first dragon: the Monstrous Nightmare. Astrid wished Hiccup good luck and agreed to make sure the Vikings wouldn't find Toothless should something go wrong, but added nervously, "Just . . . promise me it won't go wrong.". She watched as Hiccup faced the Nightmare and threw his weapon, shield, and helmet to the ground, determined to show the Vikings the truth about dragons. Alas, just as Astrid saw Hiccup about to train the dragon, Stoick, infuriated by his son's traitorous behavior, bellowed for the match to stop and struck the handrail of the Dragon Training arena with his hammer.

The noise frightened the Nightmare, resulting in it attacking Hiccup; Astrid broke into the arena and tried to help Hiccup escape but ended up in danger as well, until Stoick jumped into the ring to help them. Astrid managed to scramble out, but Hiccup ended up in the Nightmare's claws before being saved by Toothless. Toothless fought off the Monstrous Nightmare but refused to leave Hiccup, thinking that the other Vikings were threats and almost killing Stoick in the process. The Vikings swarmed Toothless, and Astrid had to stop Hiccup from interfering so he didn't get hurt. Later, she heard that Stoick had disowned Hiccup.

Later Astrid stood near Hiccup on one of Berk's bridges to watch the ships set sail for the Nest, unwitting of the monster that awaits them there. Seeing that Hiccup is feeling lost, she decided- in her own, unsympathetic way- to try and say something that would help him. She began with an apparent insensitivity- saying sardonically that Hiccup had "lost everything- his father, his tribe, his best friend". Hiccup responded with irritation to the unhelpful comment. She asked why Hiccup didn't kill Toothless the first chance he had, saying that she wants to remember what he says. Hiccup finally told her that he didn't because at that critical moment, he saw that Toothless was just as scared as he himself was; for him, it was like looking in a mirror. And then, Astrid asked what he was going to do about it. Her words motivated him, not to do something stupid... but to do something crazy.

Astrid rounded up the other students and Hiccup provided a brief crash course in what he knew about training and riding the various dragons. Astrid prevented Snotlout's attempt to arm himself when training the Monstrous Nightmare that would eventually become Hookfang. Finally, they flew off to rescue their tribe from the Red Death which had broken out of the Nest to attack. Astrid rode her Deadly Nadder- the one who would soon be known as Stormfly- and dropped Hiccup off so as to allow him to free Toothless from his chains. In the meantime, she and Stormfly flew off to help the others in the fight against the Red Death. They soon ran into danger, as the creature used its vacuum breath to suck Astrid and Stormfly in. Toothless fired a plasma blast at the back of its head, allowing Stormfly the time to fly off, but leaving Astrid plummeting from her dragon: fortunately she was saved as Toothless caught her; she grinned up at him from a heart-quaking flight upside-down, and the dragon grinned back. He then deposited her on the ground as he and Hiccup lead the Red Death into the sky where they engaged in a devastating fight against her, eventually sending her plummeting to her doom in a colossal, fiery explosion.

When she believed that Hiccup had died in the fight, Astrid was brought close to tears. Mercifully, Stoick announced that Hiccup had survived- Astrid was overjoyed on hearing the news. When Hiccup finally awoke back on Berk to see a changed village, dragons and Vikings living together, Astrid met him outside and punched him on the arm again for scaring her- then kissed him gently, solidifying their relationship. Hiccup remarked to her that he "could get used to it". Along with Stormfly, Astrid joined Hiccup, Toothless, and the other Vikings with their dragons as they soared together into the sky, ready for further adventures with their dragons.