Mala

"All hail Mala, Queen Defender of the Wing!"

- Throk

Queen Mala is the leader of a dragon worshiping tribe.

Defenders of the Wing, Part 1
Mala first meets the Dragon Riders after they were captured by Throk, believing they were Dragon Hunters. After a conversation with them, she finds them guilty and decides to take them to the nest after she finds the map with Viggo's signature. In the Nest she sends Hiccup over into a pit with a few Speed Stingers. After Toothless and the other dragons come to rescue the Riders, she orders Throk to release them after she realizes that they are not Dragon Hunters.

When she went with the Riders on a tour of the village, she introduces them to the Eruptodon, the Great Protector. Then she notices that the volcano that the Eruptodon kept from flowing was burning the hill above. When she arrived at the volcano she saw that the Eruptodon disappeared. After the Riders discover that Viggo captured the dragon, and that he used the Riders as a distraction, Mala accuses them for betraying and threatens Hiccup with a sword, saying that she will kill him herself.

Defenders of the Wing, Part 2
After a brief confrontation between the Defenders and Dragon Riders, a pair of Dragon Hunters were spotted hiding nearby, and Hiccup was able to help Mala see that they'd been tricked. With Caldera Cay endangered without the Eruptodon, it was decided that the two groups would work together: Mala would accompany Hiccup, Snotlout Jorgenson, and Fishlegs Ingerman to find and rescue the Eruptodon, while the other Riders would work with Throk to hold back the lava until the Eruptodon could be returned. Due to his unwittingly saving her from a Dragon Hunter arrow, Mala also began to look on Snotlout as a viable candidate to become her king.

Mala and Hiccup's party soon realized that they had been tricked into heading in the wrong direction, and Mala became greatly concerned for the Eruptodon, which needed a constant supply of lava in order to survive. After Mala revealed that the Eruptodon's hunger would lead it to eat through the crust of dormant volcanoes in order to feed, Hiccup realized that Viggo had taken it to Dragon's Edge in order to unleash that volcano and destroy the Riders' base. The group swiftly traveled there, and with Mala's help were able to defeat Viggo's forces despite having their own defenses turned against them. Hiccup then found a way to divert the Eruptodon from its desperate but destructive path by having Meatlug vomit up lava that the Eruptodon could feed upon. They were thus able to return the Eruptodon to Caldera Cay and save that island as well, leading to an alliance between the Defenders and Riders, though Mala was left without her expected king when Snotlout fled rather than crossing a pool of hot lava to prove his worthiness.

Saving Shattermaster
Mala and Throk later traveled to the Northern Markets in search of new weapons, only to find that the merchants would apparently only sell to the Dragon Hunters. A confrontation between the Defenders and the Hunters was narrowly avoided due to the intervention of a cloaked and hooded figure, whom the two informed Hiccup and the Riders of. Upon doing their own investigation, Hiccup and Heather discovered that it was none other than Dagur the Deranged.

Physical Appearance
Mala has very short, blonde hair with her bangs parted to the right. She has pale green eyes.

Mala's outfit is very similar to the rest of her tribe with the exception of being longer and gold lining on her tunic and shoulder guards. The ends on the front of have Eruptodon symbols.

Trivia

 * Mala is the second original female character in the series. The first being Heather.
 * Mala is the first female leader of a tribe.
 * Her sword resembles a Japanese katana.
 * She has a tendency to twist Hiccup's words against him in order to try and trip him up.
 * She has the shortest hair of all female characters.
 * However, Ruffnut's hair was briefly shorter at the end of "Free Scauldy".
 * It is possible Mala is loosely inspired by Valka's original character, which was when she was planned to be the villain for the sequel.
 * In the original, Valka began to trust her family, but when she saw the ships, she assumed Hiccup and Stoick betrayed her. This is similar to when Mala went back to her original belief that Hiccup was working for Viggo after the Eruptodon was taken.
 * Mala is the first female character that has shown interest in Snotlout.