Hiccup

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III is the main character of the How to Train Your Dragon book series and the 2010 DreamWorks film adaptation, where he is voiced by Jay Baruchel. He is a member of the Hairy Hooligan tribe, which is never referred to by name in the film. He is son of the chief, Stoick the Vast, thus making him heir to tribe. His dragon, Toothless, is a Common or Garden Dragon, though in the film is a Night Fury, the rarest and most intelligent of the dragon species in the film. ==In the FilmEdit== ===Physical AppearanceEdit=== Hiccup's appearence is much different to his book incarnation. He is portrayed with medium length brown hair and green eyes. He is not short, but he is also far from muscular and is weak compared to the other Viking teens in his class. Hiccup is usually seen in brown pants, a green tunic that reaches to his mid-thigh, a brown belt where he also keeps a small knife, a vest-like fur coat, and typical Viking-style boots. At the end of the movie, Hiccup is seen with a spring-loaded prosthetic for his left leg after part of it was lost in the final battle of the film. When he is flying with Toothless, his fur coat is replaced by a riding vest that helps him to stay secured to Toothless so that he doesn't fall off. It is also revealed that when Hiccup writes and draws, he is a left-hander. ===PersonalityEdit=== Despite his physical shortcomings, Hiccup does his best to succeed as a Viking. He is smart 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 almost obsessed with proving himself to the rest of his tribe; 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. Hiccup also shows great aptitude at being a leader and strategist: he leads his dragon training class 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 is able to discern 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 is a poor fighter. As he becomes more adept at fighting dragons, however, they start paying more attention to him. Despite this, Hiccup remains shy and secretive, preferring to be alone with Toothless. 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. ===Role in the FilmEdit=== 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 workpost and, with a bola sling 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 the following day, he discovers that the dragon is 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 its eyes, and instead wants to free it.

Meanwhile, Hiccup is enrolled in Viking training, where he is expected to learn to fight and kill dragons. At first, he struggles to complete the simplest tasks and hold his own against even the most (relatively) benign dragons, earning the 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 its retractable fangs, he builds him a fake tail to replace the one his bola injured, helps Toothless regain the ability to fly with Hiccup's assistance, and jumpstarts their friendship; he gains valuable experience and deeper insight into the mannerisms of most dragons, such as the fact that it is possible to scratch a dragon into submission if it is scratched gently under the chin. He is soon hailed a Viking prodigy, the time he spends with Toothless allowing him to ultimately keep every dragon he encounters during training at bay.

The stress of living this double life is hard on Hiccup, however. The other Vikings, particularly Astrid, take notice of his unexplained absences after dragon training sessions. Eventually, Astrid follows him and discovers Toothless. She runs off to tell the other Vikings, but Hiccup and Toothless stop her, flying her around the area on Toothless to calm Astrid down. It is during this ride that Hiccup sees the Red Death in the very Dragons' Nest his father has been dying to find and destroy. When they land, Astrid kisses Hiccup for the first time and admires his loyalty to Toothless when he refuses yet again to tell the village about the Dragons' Nest and his bond with Toothless.

Soon, Hiccup has 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 are good creatures, Hiccup's methods of dragon appeasement no longer work and the Nightmare moves in for the kill. Toothless, hearing Hiccup's scream, 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 fails to listen, renounces 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 encourages Hiccup to use his brains and do something "crazy." He gathers the other Viking teenagers and teaches them how to ride on the back of a dragon and they follow the adults, arriving just after the Red Death emerges from the Nest.

After freeing Toothless from his chains where his son could not, Stoick tells his son how proud he is of him just before Hiccup and Toothless fly off to confront the Red Death themselves. Hiccup manages to kill the Red Death by having Toothless shoot fire through its wings in mid-flight and nosedive toward the island so it cannot pull up in time and crashes into the ground, its own flame triggering an explosion on impact. Hiccup and Toothless run into the Red Death's tail as they attempt to escape the resulting blast, however, and 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 looks up to discover that, even without his makeshift tail, Toothless protected the Chief-to-be from the blast by folding him in his wings.

Hiccup is heralded as a hero in the tribe. Although he lost part of his left leg in the battle, he is fitted with a prosthetic that matches Toothless's makeshift tail. At the very end of the film, Astrid kisses Hiccup on the lips, this time seemingly as boyfriend and girlfriend, as the rest of the village accepts dragons onto the island as pets and companions. ===RelationshipsEdit=== Stoick the Vast:  Hiccup's father is the chief of the village, making Hiccup himself the next in line to become chief. However, the two seem to be complete opposites of each other: whereas Stoick is large, strong, brawny, and the best dragon fighter in the village, Hiccup is lanky, weak, brainy, and perhaps (initially, at least) the worst dragon fighter on the island. Their relationship is strained because of these differences, as Hiccup wants to make his dad proud by conforming to Viking norms and attempting to slay dragons but, most of the time, ends up making things worse.

Though confused as to what to do about Hiccup's peculiarities as a Viking, Stoick is very protective of his son; he is at first reluctant to send Hiccup to dragon training for fear that he will be killed. Moreover, during a dragon raid, it is shown that Stoick, along with everyone else in the village, prefers that Hiccup stay inside and out of harm's way (though this may be because Hiccup is more of a risk to the village than the dragons are to him).

Stoick becomes proud of Hiccup when he hears of Hiccup's success in dragon training and is elated to finally have something in common with his son. However, after his son's relationship with Toothless is revealed, their progress with one another is destroyed. Stoick accuses Hiccup of siding with the dragons and later no longer considers Hiccup to be his son. Their relationship is later mended when Hiccup comes to the rescue of the older Vikings during their confrontation with the Green Death with the help of his classmates and the dragons used in training, showing his dad his otherwise unseen bravery and leadership. This causes Stoick to apologize for his prejudice against dragons and say that he is proud of his son. Stoick shows how deeply he cares for Hiccup when he believes that Hiccup is dead and mourns, apologizing for not having listened to him before. Stoick shows great happiness when he learns that Hiccup is still alive thanks to Toothless' efforts. Later, Stoick and the village welcome Hiccup as a hero and Stoick finally accepts his son for who he is.

Toothless: Hiccup's relationship with Toothless is similar to that of the one between best friends or a pet owner and his or her beloved pet. At first, both keep their distance after Hiccup shoots Toothless down with his bola sling invention, but their curiosity leads them to learn more about each other. Hiccup starts to observe Toothless and learns many secrets about dragons from these observations that help Hiccup advance in his dragon fighting classes. Toothless starts to trust Hiccup and even allows him to touch him and eventually ride him. The depth of their relationship is furthered when Hiccup fashions a fake tail for Toothless only to discover that the two need each other to use it to fly; Hiccup is needed to manipulate the fake tail while Toothless does the actual flying. Toothless is very playful around Hiccup and is also very protective of and loyal to him, fighting off a Monstrous Nightmare in the dragon training ring before it could kill Hiccup and refusing to leave when the rest of the village joins in on the fight. Later, when Hiccup is knocked off of him while attempting to escape the explosion that kills the Red Death, Toothless manages to reach for and protect Hiccup by wrapping him in his wings, even without his own fake tail. Toothless is later overjoyed when Hiccup wakes up after the battle, jumping around his house with glee, and tickling him, before helping his human friend to walk on his new prosthetic leg.

Astrid Hofferson: Astrid is Hiccup's main love interest and fellow dragon-fighting classmate in the movie. At first, she is unimpressed by Hiccup and his lack of dragon-fighting skills and often rebuffs his efforts to speak to her. Although she doesn't make fun of him as much as the other Viking teens, she is not particularly pleased about his presence in the dragon training class and thinks that he is weak. Later, however, Astrid becomes jealous of Hiccup's sudden success in Dragon Training and follows him into the forest, eventually discovering Hiccup's friendship with Toothless and threatening to reveal it to the village. After Hiccup and Toothless take her for a ride, her views about dragons and Hiccup change as she sees just how amazing dragons really are as well as Hiccup's true aptitude for communicating with them. She also grows a greater respect for Hiccup when he shows his adamance in protecting Toothless, refusing to tell the other Vikings about their trip to Dragons' Nest and his friendship with the Night Fury out of fear that they would take drastic action against the dragons and kill Toothless. Astrid later tries to help Hiccup during his dragon training final exam when the Monstrous Nightmare attacks him by distracting it and later holds Hiccup back so that he doesn't get hurt when the Vikings overpower Toothless. Astrid comforts Hiccup and inspires him to round up the other Viking teens to help him with his plan to save the villagers from the Red Death shortly after they depart for the Nest. When Hiccup is believed to be dead, she shows a softer side of her, obviously mourning the loss of her friend (and potentially mutual love interest). She finalizes her feelings for him at the end of the film when she kisses him on the lips, implying that the two may have some sort of romantic relationship.

Gobber the Belch: Gobber is the blacksmith of the village, as well as a mentor and secondary father figure to Hiccup. Despite acting like all of his other students are expendable or simply paying little attention to their well-being, Gobber seems to have a soft spot for Hiccup. This is obscured, however, by the methods by which he goes about expressing his fondness of the boy. Though his intentions are good, Gobber often gives out comically bad advice that somehow just makes Hiccup feel worse. Most importantly, however, Gobber acts as the bridge of communication between Stoick and Hiccup, since the two seem to be unable to listen to one another otherwise. In fact, Gobber is the one who convinced Stoick to allow Hiccup to enroll in the Dragon Training classes, reminding the latter that he could not always hope to protect Hiccup; the best he could do was prepare him. At the end of the film, Gobber is the one who constructs a new fake tail for Toothless and Hiccup's prosthetic leg.

Role in the series
Hiccup is a valuable ally to the Shell Louge Squad in their efforts to defeat Malefor and the Green Death.