Template:ImportantTemplate:Infobox Hiccup is the main protagonist of How to Train Your Dragon. His appearance is much different to his book incarnation. In the book series, and the film based off it, he is portrayed with medium length dark auburn 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 dark green pants, a green tunic that reaches to his mid-thigh, a brown belt where he also keeps a small knife, a brown 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 left-handed.
Personality
Despite his physical shortcomings, Hiccup does his best to succeed as a Viking. He is very intelligent as he creates 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, and himself. 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 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 is 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 first. 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 Film
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, after what appears to be many failed attempts, he find the dragon and discovers that it'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 its eyes, and instead frees it.
Meanwhile, as he is looking for the Night Fury, Hiccup is enrolled into 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 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 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 a 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 in a certain spot under the chin. He is 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, 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, flying her around the area on Toothless to calm Astrid down. It is during this ride that Hiccup sees the Green Death in the very Dragons' Nest his father has been dying 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 kisses Hiccup on the cheek after punching him in the shoulder, 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, 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 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 talks to Hiccup about the entire situation and asks him what he's gonna do about it, which leads him say "something crazy." He goes off to do his 'crazy' plan, while Astrid apparently gathers the other Viking teenagers. Hiccup brings out the now tame Monstrous Nightmare, and teaches them how to ride on the back of a dragon.
While the Vikings try to fight a losing fight, the teens fly into the scene, with Gobber commenting that Hiccup is, "Every thread of a stubborn, bone-headed Viking you ever were," to Stoick, who nods numbly. Hiccup goes onto the burning ship where Toothless is, and tries to free him, but soon the ship broke apart, pulling Toothless down to the seafloor. Hiccup still fails, however, and goes limp after a few moments of trying, only to be saved by his father, who also frees Toothless from his chains. After Toothless pulls him up to land again, Stoick tells his son that he doesn't have to do this, to which Hiccup replies, "We're Vikings. It's an occupational hazrd."
In response to the familiar words, Stoick tells Hiccup how proud he is to call him as his son, just before Hiccup and Toothless fly off to confront the Green Death themselves. Hiccup manages to kill the Green 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 firebolt into its mouth, it cannot pull up in time. During the fight, though, Toothless's fake tail caught 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 Green 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 Green 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 protected the Chief-to-be from the blast by folding him in his wings. Hiccup's prosthetic leg.When he wakes up after an unknown amount of time, 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 Gobber made, "With a little Hiccup flair thrown in it." This new prosthetic matches Toothless's makeshift tail, and clips right into place. 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.
Role in How To Train Your Dragon 2
Hiccup appears in the second film which is set five years after the first where he is now 20.
Relationships
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 ends up making things worse most of the time.
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, although his attempt at conversation with his awkward son ended in failure. However, after his son's relationship with Toothless is revealed, their small 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 to call Hiccup 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. He 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, perhaps even a sibling relationship. 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 later very playful around Hiccup, and is also very protective of and loyal to him. This is shown in how before, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get out of the cove without flying, until he heard Hiccup's scream, then manages to climb out and fight 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, perhaps seeing them as a threat. Later, when Hiccup is knocked off of him while attempting to escape the explosion that kills the Green 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: 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 like the other Viking teens, she does not seem particularly pleased about his presence in the dragon training class either, and probably thinks that he is weak. Later, however, Astrid becomes jealous and angry about 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 Green 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 (proven to be true in the short, 'The Gift of the Night Fury').
Gobber: 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.
Valka:
Other Appearances
Hiccup has appeared in the fandom Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons or the Big Four. He is often shipped with Rapunzel (Tangled) as Hiccunzel, or Merida (Brave) as Mericcup.
Similarities to Other Heroes
Gallery
