Hookfang (Franchise)

Hookfang is one of Stoick the Vast's dragons in the How to Train Your Dragon book series. He is also the Monstrous Nightmare belonging to Snotlout in both the film and the television series.

Appearance
Hookfang is a Monstrous Nightmare, and is the size of a leopard in the books. In the movie he is 61 feet long with a 68 foot wingspan. In the books, Hookfang actually belongs to Stoick and not Snotlout. According to Snotlout, Hookfang weighs around 5,040 pounds, and he can light himself on fire using his sweat. Hookfang is a perfect example of a typical Monstrous Nightmare. He has large shiny grayish-black horns that curve slightly outwards on the edge. He has bright reddish-orange scales with darker spots scattered around. His underside is a light tan, and he has yellowish orange eyes like most other dragons. Hookfang is the most commonly seen Nightmare, so most stock images are of him. His color scheme is fairly common in the movie, and Snotlout has even mistaken other Nightmares for him. Hookfang's horns lack extra antlers coming off of them, which does help to distinguish him from other Monstrous Nightmares seen in the film. He seems to be fully grown, and no Nightmares have yet been seen that are notably larger than him.

In the Books
In How to Train Your Dragon, he mocked Hiccup's new dragon Toothless for his small size when he first saw him. He is not mentioned in any other book except the first one. In the books, Hookfang is one of Stoick's dragons, along with Newtbreath the Gronckle.

In the film
In the film, like the other main characters' dragons, he was kept prisoner at dragon training and the top of the class would've had the 'honor' of killing him. Hiccup was given the chance and instead, tries to connect to him and show the Vikings that dragons are not monsters, but after an outburst from Stoick, he becomes startled and begins to attack Hiccup in defense, until Toothless comes and protects his friend from the much bigger dragon, having no difficulty in subduing the enemy.

Later, when Hiccup is trying to get his friends to connect with the dragons and help fight the Red Death, Hookfang is the first one he brings out. Everyone is astounded by this, except for Astrid. Ironically, Snotlout is terrified enough to prepare a broken end of a spear as a weapon, in case Hookfang starts attacking, but Astrid nudges him to put it down. When Hiccup brings Hookfang closer to the others, he grabs Snotlout's arm so he can touch the dragon. Snotlout, obviously still frightened tries to resist, until Hiccup calms him and places his hand on his snout and he begins to growl in a purring manner. Snotlout's fear turns to amazement as he has made a connection, until Hiccup starts walking away to grab rope to "hang on" to the dragons, as the camera moves to reveal that the Gronkle, Deadly Nadder, and Zippleback are out of the cages, ready to be tamed.

During the final battle of the Red Death, Snotlout is seen riding Hookfang. When it is seen that Hiccup and Toothless have defeated the Red Death but Hiccup is no where to be found, everyone is upset. Toothless reveals that Hiccup is alive and everyone is overjoyed. Hookfang makes a brief appearance as he bows his head between two Vikings and is seen to make a "woo" sound with his eyes closed. The Vikings stare at the dragon in amazement.

At the end, Snotlout and Hookfang join the other dragons and trainers as they ride into the sky.

In Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon
In this short film, Hookfang makes a very short appearance. He's seen along with Snotlout, pouring water on Gobber's house, in an effort to put out the fire. Other than this, Hookfang did not make any further appearance.

In Gift of the Night Fury
In the short film Gift of the Night Fury, he becomes a father. He's even the one to fly Hiccup back home with the other dragons and their hatchlings. When they get home and land, Snotlout runs over and hugs his snout, as they are both ecstatic to see each other. At the Snoggletog party, Snotlout is seen playing with one of his children.

In Riders of Berk
In Riders of Berk, Hookfang is shown to disobey and neglect Snotlout (the only Viking from the main cast that can't control his dragon).

In Viking for Hire, Hookfang behaved aggressively and Gobber was going to kill him. But after seeing that he only had a toothache, Gobber quickly fixed this by pulling it out.

In In Dragons We Trust, Hookfang runs off to chase a bird as soon as he was put on Dragon Island, unlike the other dragons.

Snotlout and Hookfang have a unique relationship. It is shown that Hookfang does hold some affection for his owner, but Snotlout's immaturity and idiocy leaves him holding disrespect (mimicking Snotlout's "respect" for him). It is often implied throughout both series that Hookfang's disobedience and willingness to undermine Snotlout may partly be to keep his rider's overabundant ego and self-righteousness in check, as he often acts out when Snotlout attempts to assert his superiority over him or the others.

He also seems to take callous pleasure in making Snotlout scream when they are out for a flying ride. He disobeys Snotlout most of the time, but in Defiant One, Snotlout says to go North when Hiccup says to go South. Wanting to keep on go with the others, Hookfang doesn't respond until Snotlout looks his dragon in the eye and says, "Hey, you work for ME!" Later in the episode, Hookfang is seen carrying Gobber as an attempt to save Snotlout, Hiccup, and Toothless from Outcast Island. Hookfang also gets distracted easily, like chasing a seagull or watching a leaf fall. He may have learned this behavior from Snotlout, as well as his rebellious, deliberately disobedient attitude towards his rider, which mirrors Snotlout's attitude towards Hiccup in the academy.

Defenders of Berk
In Race to Fireworm Island, Hookfang's flame goes out, putting his life at risk. In this episode it's shown that Hookfang did really care for Snotlout, proving this when he throws the Fireworm gel instead of consuming it, to save Snotlout from getting killed by the Fireworm Queen. In Fright of Passage, Hookfang showed a definite amount of impertinence towards Snotlout, as evidenced by the look he gave Snotlout as he entered Ruffnut and Tuffnut's secret hideaway.

How to Train Your Dragon 2
Hookfang is shown to have three barbels under his chin, showing that he has aged.

Relationships
Snotlout Jorgenson: Hookfang and Snotlout bonded with one another in the first film, before they went to fight the Red Death. Even though they seem very cold and harsh towards one another, they care deeply about one another, as they were both willing to sacrifice their lives for one another in Race to Fireworm Island. They are very in sync, both being very proud, stubborn and rude. Despite his loyalty towards Snotlout, he didn't want to be burried alive with him in The Flight Stuff. But this could also be because he knew Snotlout wasn't really gonna die.

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III: Hiccup and Hookfang first met in the Arena, in the first film. Hiccup was assigned to kill Hookfang, but instead tried to train him, in order to show the Tribe the truth about Dragons. Even though it seems to work, Stoick interrupts. Startled, the Nightmare attacks and almost kills Hiccup. However, he was saved by Toothless. In Gift of the Night Fury, Hookfang gave Hiccup a lift back to Berk.

Astrid Hofferson: Astrid first met Hookfang in the Kill Ring, where she tried to save Hiccup from him. In A Tale of Two Dragons, she and Snotlout temporarily switch Dragons. Even though she doesn't like it at first, she is quickly impressed by his firebreathing and strength. Astrid even discovered the hidden ability of 'Wing Blast'. She became very fond of Hookfang, to the point she wanted to feed him behind Snotlout's back.

[Toothless: From the moment he met Toothless, the two have been rivals. Toothless saved Hiccup from Hookfang in the Kill Ring, and later worked together with him in order to defeat the Red Death. In several episodes, such as Thawfest, they were shown to be rivals.

Barf and Belch: Hookfang and Barf and Belch have shown to be fighting one another in several episodes, for various reasons.

Gobber the Belch: After the event in the Kill Ring, Gobber was the one leading Hookfang back into his cage. He was also the one who managed to cure Hookfang's toothache in Viking for Hire. In Defiant One, he has been seen riding Hookfang temporarily.

Abilities and Skills
From hard training with Snotlout, some of Hookfang's abilities have become better than those of a regular Monstrous Nightmare, becoming a perfect dragon warrior for Snotlout.

Strength: Hookfang is shown to be a very powerful dragon. Hookfang has never show any sign of struggle of lifting up any heavy objects in the air. He has shown to be carrying heavy Vikings, such as Gobber, Alvin and Stoick, on his neck with extra weight of Snotlout without any type of struggling at all. He has shown that just one of his wing that he has the strength to smack a speeding  Meatlug, with the extra weight of Fishlegs on her back, to the side easily while flying. His jaw strength is also quite good, as he can fit his rider's torso in his mouth but does not bite at full force.

Fire: Like most Stoker Class dragons, Hookfang can breath fire and can set himself on fire by using the highly flammable gel on his body. This is called the 'Fire jacket'. With this ability, Hookfang can lights himself up any part of his body, like his horns or tail, instead of his whole body, nor use the full power of this ability. Hookfang can lower his flamethrower to burn Snotlout, in order to bully and tease him. According to Snotlout, Hookfang can keep him warm cold winters. However, this was probably a lie in order to convince Stoick to take a Nightmare in How to Pick Your Dragon. This was later proven to be true in View to a Skrill Part I, where Hookfang did warm up his saddle.

Wing Blast: Hookfang's wings are strong enough to blast away Barf and Belch to the ground, blow away Barf's gas or move a pair of trees out of the way. Hookfang was able to combine this hidden ability and his fire in order to create more powerful attack. He has been seen using this in the battle against Dagur the Deranged and use this to save the Screaming Death's mother from harm to set her free from the ropes.

Swimming: Hookfang appears to be a great swimmer. When swimming, he somewhat resembles an alligator, with his tail and body on top of the surface. Hookfang has shown he can swim in a high speed. He probably could have stayed underwater longer, if he wasn't burdened by Snotlout.

Speed: Hookfang is a very fast flier. He was shown to able to keep up with Toothless at the Thawfest games, though ultimately not as fast as the Night Fury. This may be the result of his hard training with Snotlout. Snotlout had stated that Hookfang speed isn't as fast as Stormfly, who he believes she is crazy fast. He has shown that he is also relatively fast when running on the ground, and when swimming.

Acrobatics: Hookfang has proven several times to be very flexible and agile. An example is when he dodged many of the attacks from the Skrill, but Snotlout got hit many times.

Endurance and Stamina : Hookfang has shown to have amazing stamina and endurance. When attacking Hiccup in the arena, he was hit by the strength of Astrid's by throwing a axe at his face and being attacked by Toothless, but he was still able to shown that he was in a perfect condition afterwards. Even when he became sick of the hypothermia in "Race To Fireworm Island", which was a result from Snotlout's hard training, he could still fly high and catch up to the dragons, though with much trouble. He also recovered fairly quickly several times, such as when he was stun by the Screaming Death's sonic shriek, was attacked by same dragon, or fell into Mildew's house from diving full speed to save his rider from harm In Dragons We Trust.

Intelligence and Communication skills : Like most dragons, Hookfang is able to understand Snotlout's orders. Though this doesn't always mean he obeys them. Snotlout did manage to teach him some orders such as 'Annihilate' and 'Stealth' by hand signals. Though he wasn't very good at the stealth knowing that Snoutlout was trying to tell him to step lightly. He also knew about the Thorston twins' exclusive safe house, while Snotlout didn't know about it. He also understood Astrid's 'Wing Blast' command. He also understood that Snotlout thought he was going to die from a prank of the twins that his Rider wants him to be buried next to him. He shown his rider he doesn't want to die while buried alive.

Personality
Like his rider, he is somewhat of a bully and aggressive. Though Hookfang and Snotlout's relationship may look uncaring and cold at first sight, they had proved to be very close to one another. Though Hookfang often bullies Snotlout by disobeying him or attacking him, he has been seen caring for Snotlout, which was shown few times. Examples are in Thawfest, when Spitelout scolded Snotlout. Hookfang tried to comfort Snotlout, but said Viking wasn't thankful for that.

in 'Race to Fireworm Island' when Hookfang was willing to sacrifice his own life for the cure to his illness for Snotlout's life, or when he saved them from the Whispering Deaths and Speed Stingers. Snotlout said in 'Fright of Passage' the last face he wanted to see besides his own face was Hookfang's face, though Hookfang himself didn't seem very thankful for this. He was shown to be upset when he thought the Screaming Death had killed Snotlout, but gave Alvin a lift to Berk for showing his gratitude, because the former Outcast Chieftain saved Snotlout's life.

Hookfang and his rider are very in sync when it come's to personality. Both have shown to be proud, reckless, slightly selfish, don't respect authority and pick fights for the heck of it. Much like Snotlout always teases some of the other teens (Mostly Hiccup and Fishlegs) Hookfang is shown to pick up fights with other dragons, such as Toothless, Barf and Belch and Stormly. The reason for Stormfly was because both of them were influenced by the Dragon root. They both have a rivalry with Hiccup and Toothless.

Trivia

 * Hookfang has a habit of letting his tongue dangle from his mouth.
 * While disobedient to Snotlout, Hookfang is more gentle to the other Vikings like Hiccup, Heather, and Stoick. He will even listen to Fishlegs' commands.
 * Like Snotlout and Hiccup, Hookfang has a rivalry with Toothless (though it is more downplayed and implied).
 * In How to Train Your Dragon 2, Hookfang does not have tines on his horns which indicates that he is still young or the tines have really gone because he's really an old Nightmare (or the tines could be a production goof or he might simply not have any and its really just a random trait for his species). But instead of getting tines, he has barbels on his chin.
 * He may also have adopted Snotlout's dislike of authority.
 * The way Snotlout rides Hookfang is in a similar fashion to riding a "Harley Davidson" motorcycle with an extended front wheel.