Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III

Character Name: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III

Canon Name: How To Train Your Dragon

Canon Type: Animated film

Tell us about your character's history:

Hiccup’s original home was the Island of Berk, host to a band of hard-headed Vikings with a big pest problem: Dragons. Killing dragons was everything for the people of Berk, so for Hiccup to be too skinny and weak to battle a dragon head-on made him an outcast. No matter how hard he tried to create mechanical devices to compensate for his lack of physical strength, he never fit in. Desperate to mold his son into a real Viking, Hiccup’s father Stoick, enrolled his son in Dragon Training. Reluctantly attending class by day, unbeknownst to all, Hiccup had befriended an injured dragon named Toothless, even going so far as to fly on its back. He also used the knowledge he gained from their friendship to excel in Dragon Training, going from loser to village hero overnight.

Knowing Stoick would use Toothless to find and attack the dragons’ nest, Hiccup planned to keep Toothless a secret only for the dragon to come crashing in during Hiccup’s training exam. As he feared, Stoick harnessed Toothless and used him as a beacon to steer the Vikings to the dragons’ nest, not realizing the size and power of the queen dragon that awaited. Determined to save them all, Hiccup concocted a plan with his classmates to fly on the backs of other dragons and mount a rescue. With Toothless, Hiccup was able to draw the queen dragon away and into the air, where they turned her own flame against her, but lost control over Toothless’ prosthetic tail fin. Injured, Hiccup fell into the fire with Toothless charging after to save him. Hiccup lived, but his rescue came at a price; when he woke up at home, he realized that his left leg had been amputated from the knee down.

When he walked out the door, however, Hiccup and Toothless found themselves on a strange island named Tabula Rasa, where all the residents arrived and disappeared for months or years, seemingly at random. There, he befriended many people and found a second family among the Stark clan, chiefly Robb Stark and his son Reynald, as well as a romance with a freedom-loving girl from the Scottish Highlands named Merida. His new home gave Hiccup a chance to start over as more than just the worst viking in the village and he became the island’s main blacksmith, even teaching a few classes on jewelry-making. Respected and grounded with his new family, Hiccup grew into a strong young man, confident but never arrogant and always excited to learn.

After three years on the island, the winds changed again, blowing nineteen-year-old Hiccup over to the Nexus Hotel.

Tell us about your character's personality:

Despite being born a Viking, Hiccup seemed to have missed out on every single Viking trait, from build, to killer instinct, to brute strength. Even physically, Hiccup never matched up to the rest of them, small and scrawny while his peers were muscular and tough. While he learned a lot at the local blacksmith’s, his cunning was never particularly appreciated by the people of the village who would have preferred that he just pick up a sword and kill a dragon like a proper Viking. Like every awkward teenager, he longed for some kind of acceptance, trying to prove his worth in all the wrong ways without success.

Hiccup has a wide sarcastic streak that started as a defense mechanism back on Berk from years of being openly told he was the worst Viking the village had ever seen. Even though he’s gained respect from his peers and then from the occupants of Tabula Rasa, Hiccup’s self-confidence has never really caught up with his new relationships. As such, he tends to be playfully sarcastic, never mean, but forever self-deprecating. He’ll sing his friends’ praises all day long but when it comes to his own accomplishments, Hiccup will shrug a little bit and say, “Yeah, I guess that was pretty good. I mean. I didn’t ruin anything, right?”

At his core, though, Hiccup does have his share of Viking-like traits, the foremost of which being stubbornness. At times, it can make him intractable, even self-defeating, but it also means he’ll never give up. If Robb Stark says that Hiccup is practically family, he’ll strive to live up to that name, being a good brother, leader, or teacher. If Merida decides to teach him how to fight with a sword, he’ll learn maneuvers until his arms ache, determined to prove he can keep up. It never comes off as belligerence, but no one can accuse of him of being a quitter.

The way Hiccup saw it, he had two options: cut his hair or learn to braid it. Not really knowing anyone who could help him with the first one, it looked like it was high time to learn to braid his hair like a proper Viking man. The problem was who to ask. Fili and his grumpy uncle were out, since he was still the nutcase with the dragon, and he didn't want to push his tenuous friendship with Kili by pestering him for the favor. Legolas he didn't know very well at all and while Merida said that some of the men she knew braided their hair, it still felt a little awkward to ask any favors that involved sitting in close proximity.

So, hopefully, Dany wouldn't think it a strange request when he came down the Compound's hallways looking for her.

It was a good thing he'd moved to Green Arrow Estates, because Hiccup had a feeling he'd otherwise have ended up hiding a pallet under the forge's work bench to sleep on. While he was the one who used it the most, Hiccup had a feeling it would push the boundaries to camp out in what was essentially public property. Now he could walk here any time he liked and work as it suited him.

It was early evening now and he sat comfortably on the table, tinkering with a box he was making, adjusting the hinges. It was fastidious but easy work to make several plain boxes for his jewelry students to embellish and his attention had long been completely absorbed into the repetition of the task.