Ruffnut Thorston

"I know this is gonna be hard for you to hear, but I need you to hear it, so I'm just gonna say it. There comes a time in every Viking's life when they must give up the thing they love the most."

- Ruffnut to Tuffnut

Ruffnut Eugene Thorston is a teenage member of the Hairy Hooligan Tribe. She is the fraternal twin of Tuffnut Thorston, whom she often argues with, sometimes to the point of physical violence, though never seriously enough to separate them for too long. She is 14 years old in the first film, three shorts, and first two television series, 17-19 in Dragons: Race to the Edge and 19 in How to Train Your Dragon 2. Her dragon is a Hideous Zippleback named Barf and Belch, which she shares with her brother.

Unlike Tuffnut, Ruffnut doesn't appear in the books. She is an additional female character created for the film franchise.

Official Description
"Ruffnut, 19, is the crass, conniving sister half of the notorious twin duo. Much like her bother, Tuffnut, she delights in all things dangerous and against the rules. While unladylike in most every way, she is still the last single lady on Berk, making her the unwilling recipient in Snotlout's and Fishlegs' competitive wooing. It's enough to put her off romance for good - that is until Eret, son of Eret comes crushing in her life, or rather, she into his. Suddenly, a burning desire turn Ruffnut into a woman-possessed, and no one - not Snotlout, Fishlegs, Tuffnut, or even Eret - is going to stop her from getting what she wants."

- Viking Guide

Personality
"I'm not always that violent, just most of the time."

- Ruffnut

Ruffnut is tomboyish in nature, mostly because she is a Viking, but she does tend to find it offensive when Tuffnut negatively comments about her physique.

Ruffnut can often be smug, snarky, anarchic, irresponsible and sometimes downright vicious but she also has a strong compassionate and selfless side as she was willing to cut her braids off so that they could serve as a substitute for a rope to save Scauldy. She also stubbornly stood her ground when the gang tried to persuade her in leaving when the Changewings were approaching, refusing to let Scauldy die. In the same episode, it's revealed that when the twins were little, while Tuffnut was afraid of the dark, Ruffnut used to be afraid of her brother. While Tuffnut was talking with Barf about Ruffnut in the episode "Zippleback Down", he concludes that she has a lot of rage and frustration because she feels trapped since she's "a woman in a man's world".

In the television series, despite having tamed Barf (and technically Belch), she seemed to have a slight fear of wild dragons that could potentially kill her and would often panic in situations in which she encounters a wild dragon. It's also shown that she might be afraid of dying, even to the point of naming the Scauldron "Please-Don't-Kill-Me." She has a slight motherly side and is quick to comfort Scauldy like how often a mother treats her kids, as shown in "Free Scauldy".

Ruffnut loves punching and wrestling with Tuffnut. In "Twinsanity", despite their quarreling, on occasion, she is shown to pull herself and Tuffnut out of danger. Ruffnut dislikes having to share everything with her brother and had a brief fallout, but they reconciled when they realized Barf and Belch were in danger. She also appears to be slightly cleverer than Tuffnut, such as when she knew what a rhetorical question is, while her brother didn't. Ruffnut has also shown to be slightly jealous of her female peers and felt underappreciated by her male peers. In the first movie, she has a short-lived crush on Hiccup but seems to have outgrown it when Hiccup didn't return the interest. In How to Train Your Dragon 2, she starts crushing on Eret, Son of Eret instead.

Ruffnut and Tuffnut seem to actively cultivate the impression of being completely crazy, competing between themselves to outdo each other's outlandish behavior. This, along with downplaying their intelligence and exaggerating their difficulty paying attention, dramatically lowers everybody's expectations of them, allowing them to do virtually no work.

She and Tuffnut appear to be very keen on theatre, acting in a very theatrical manner and using almost Shakespearean words and phrases, meaning that they could actually be very smart, as is evident in "Total Nightmare".

Physical Appearance
In both the television show and the first movie, Ruffnut wears a light brown, animal skin-like mini vest and a dark blue tunic that goes a little over her hip and ends in tatters. She wears a grayish-brown mini-skirt that also ends in tatters. Around her waist, she wears a metal-leather belt with an unidentified metal crest in the middle of it. Ruffnut wears dark brown leggings and dark blue furry boots. On her arms, she wears a long dark-gray cloth brace (somewhat similar to what Astrid wears) that starts at her elbows and stops at the wrist. A bit of the cloth also goes through between her first and second finger. Ruffnut's helmet is studded with four horns, just like her brother's, albeit being longer and more slender: The top two are thinner bull-like horns while the two bottom horns are longer and curved. Without her helmet, her hair is evenly divided in slightly to the side and short bangs across the left side of her face. She has two small braids near the top of her hair and long braids that reach to her waist. There's also an additional braid on her back. Around her neck, Ruffnut wears a necklace with the pendant of a tooth or claw that may have come from a Dragon. She's skinny for her age and has tan skin, just like her brother, along with a pair of pale-blue eyes.

Ruffnut sacrifices her braids so that they could serve as a substitute for the missing ropes to make Scauldy's splint. She had a short, rough, boyish hair, in which Tuffnut says makes her look like a boy; however, in a Tweet, the director of the show confirmed that this was only a temporary hairstyle, which was proven to be true, as her hair appears long again in the next episode.

In the second film, Ruffnut has an older appearance, along with a new set of clothes. She wears the same helmet from the first movie, along with a yellowish-brown dress that goes down to her thighs. Over that, she wears a dark blue tunic-like vest that covers her torso and stops at her waist opening in the middle with a red cloth belt around her waist along with another vest made of tan fur.

She wears brown leggings paired with dark blue furry boots that have thin red cloth wrapping them. On her arms, she wears a long dark-blue, violet, and light brown cloth brace that begins at her elbows and ends at her wrists. A bit of cloth goes around her middle finger.

Skills and Abilities

 * Fighting: Ruff is moderately skilled in combat, usually sparring freestyle or attacking Tuff when they are arguing. In the television series, Ruff is shown to be slightly better at fighting than her brother, often with her overpowering him in sparring matches and duels as well as winning verbal arguments. She was able to take on several Berserkers with a spear, and, with the juvenile Razorwhip Wingnut on her back, she could defeat three Dragon Hunters with ease.


 * Zippleback Gas Resistant: It has been shown in the television series that the twins are the only ones who are not affected by Barf's gas, which can cause disorientation and a sick feeling, possibly because they have gotten used to it.


 * Thievery: Ruff is also a very experienced thief and pickpocket. Following an attack on Berk, she was able to loot damaged homes. However, Ruff would return the items when someone found out about them ("Team Astrid"). She was also able to pickpocket by pretending to beg, such when she and the riders were first captured by Ryker's Dragon Hunters. She was able to a steal a piece of chicken and the keys from one of the Hunters ("Night of the Hunters, Part 1", "Night of the Hunters, Part 2").


 * Acting: Ruffnut is shown to be a good actress as she was able to pickpocket a guard by putting on a theatrical act.


 * Intelligence: Ruff doesn't seem to be too bright, though she is often shown to have the intellectual edge over her brother. She's unable to sit still and pay attention without fighting and/or getting into trouble with her brother, causing most of the other Viking teens to doubt their abilities. Often, the others of the group have to explain to her (and Tuff) when they're about to execute a plan. Despite her inability to pay attention, she always knows how to make people or Dragons angry, often proving helpful for Ruff to act as a distraction or bait. Recently in the television series, Ruff has been shown to often have outbursts of intelligence and a smarter outlook on life, alongside Tuff, revealing that the twins are much more intelligent than they initially seem. So it seems that they simply choose not to listen or think. She even thought of using her hair as a rope to help Scauldy and able to fool Tuffnut by thinking they share the same pain and making believe he has an invisible tail. She also has a wider vocabulary than her brother, as she was shown in some instances that she knows some words that her brother doesn't.


 * Dragon Training & Riding: She is moderately skilled in training dragons, as shown in several episodes. She (along with Tuff) trained a Terrible Terror and taught it how to attack in "Worst in Show". Ruff was also able to train Scauldy and quickly develop a strong sense of loyalty and trust to each other in a short amount of time in "Free Scauldy". Despite her Dragon Training skills, she often has trouble riding Barf and Belch because one can't ride without another and the fact that she argues with Tuff over what to do and how they would do it. She was also able to ride Heather's Razorwhip, Windshear, quite well ("Edge of Disaster, Part 2"). She also managed to tame a Changewing enough that it let her paints its belly.

Tuffnut Thorston
"No! You wish I was your sister! You think I'd be dragging your monkey butt all over the jungle, risking your life, if my brother weren't the most important thing in the world to me?! Think about that!"

- Ruffnut, to Snotlout

Ruffnut and Tuffnut have a strong love/hate sibling relationship. Although most of the time quarreling and fighting over trivial things in life, they show an inseparable bond with each other and rarely spend too much time apart. They both enjoy the feeling of pain, especially if the pain is inflicted on the other twin.

As twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut share a strong invisible connection towards each other. They have the ability to understand each other's thoughts and ideas without speaking, as shown several times to finish each other's sentences or to have the same idea at the same time. They also have the ability to stay together as they are rarely too far apart for a long time. Wherever one twin goes, the other twin is never far behind, even if they intentionally try to stay away from each other. Ruff and Tuff also work incredibly well together (when they want to) and can synchronize themselves to do the same actions at the same time. It's also possible that they are able to sense where the other is and what happened to them, as other twins are able to do.

By the time of Dragons: Race to the Edge, the two do not fight as much as they used to. Ruffnut shows her care for her brother when she tries to prove to him that he is not turning into a Lycanwing. Later, she said that her brother was the most important thing in the world to her and that she refused to spend her life doing anything without him. Ruffnut also hugs him in relief of her brother finally being safe ("Bad Moon Rising"). Tuffnut gets worried and anxious for Ruff when he sees her get kidnapped by the Dragon Hunters, and is willing to do anything to save her ("Edge of Disaster, Part 2").

Barf and Belch
Being their dragon, the twins had to share riding it. The twins care tremendously about their dragon, although not as much as Hiccup cares about Toothless. One head is loyal to each twin (Barf and Ruff, Belch and Tuff) and on occasion, the heads will fight each other when the twins fight each other. Usually, the heads will work in unity if they feel that their Riders are in danger and feel that their rider's constant quarreling is annoying. Both dragon and Rider are willing to risk their necks to save each other. Tuff even states that Barf and Belch is his "totally awesome dragon" that he shares with his "totally un-awesome sister". Several times during the TV Series, Barf and Belch are seen to be extremely protective of their riders when they are in danger, as shown as they are willing to fight a Typhoomerang to defend Tuff ("Zippleback Down"). as well as leaving the cave to search for Ruff. Despite specifically being Barf’s trainer Ruffnut does, in fact, care for both personalities of the dragon. During the events of "In Dragons We Trust", Ruffnut is shown hugging both Barf and Belch farewell, after Mildew’s trickery gets all dragons banished from Berk.

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III
"You're crazy. I like that."

- Ruffnut to Hiccup

Not a lot of screen time is shown between the twins and Hiccup. Most of the time, they follow Hiccup's commands, although not always done in the right way. On occasion, they disobey him or misinterpret his orders. Despite Hiccup doubting their abilities most of the time, he acknowledges their abilities to work together if they want to. He gains respect for the twins when they figure out the idea to "fight fire with fire" and Tuff's ability to train Torch ("Zippleback Down"). Although finding them annoying from time-to-time, Hiccup is shown to care for them as he and the other Viking teens attempt to find them after their disappearance and was relieved to find out that Ruff and Tuff were both okay. He also acknowledges their decision to follow Alvin's ship to spy on him ("A View to a Skrill, Part 2"). They also care about Hiccup, (even though it's hard to tell), like when they, along with the other Riders, were very happy to see that he was alive after the battle with the Red Death (How to Train Your Dragon). and when he fell down a hole, (then came out okay later). She also found the painting of him very attractive though she wasn't as vocal as Astrid ("Portrait of Hiccup as a Buff Young Man").

Astrid Hofferson
""Astrid, Astrid, Astrid!" Everyone's always talking about Astrid!"

- Ruffnut

Although they rarely interact in the show or movie, they remain neutral to each other and will work together when it comes to it. Most times, Astrid will get angry if they do something wrong, especially if it's because they're not paying attention or just being silly which frustrates the twins to no end. Like Hiccup, she doubts their abilities as Dragon Trainers due to their inability to pay attention, although it is assumed that she gained respect towards the twins when they put out the fire and trained Torch ("Zippleback Down"). On occasion, she will punch Tuff if he angers her, although Astrid is never shown on-screen to hit Ruff. It's assumed that Ruff and Astrid are on mutual friendly terms as they are the only girls in the group. Astrid was one of the Vikings who attempted to find the twins after they were blasted out of the sky by the Skrill. It is presumed that off-screen, she had attempted to find them although Stormfly soon grew exhausted, showing that she does indeed care for the twins ("A View to a Skrill, Part 1"). When Hiccup ascends to become the new chief of the Hooligan tribe, Ruffnut can be seen cheering for him.

Snotlout Jorgenson
"Did I tell you that you look amazing today? 'Cause you do."

- Snotlout to Ruffnut

Snotlout and the twins share a close relationship. Often times, the twins will follow Snotlout and act as one of his supporters when he bullies Hiccup and possibly Fishlegs as well in the first film. In the video game, they listen to Snotlout's plan to cheat in the competition against Hiccup/Astrid. Snotlout often thinks the twins are incredibly dumb and in return, they sometimes exclude Snotlout from their ideas. Although sometimes siding with Snotlout, they occasionally bully him back, like how they fooled him into thinking he was dying ("The Flight Stuff"). It's presumed that Snotlout had attempted to find the twins (as stated by Hiccup) after they disappeared after being blasted out of the sky, which shows his apparent caring personality towards them ("A View to a Skrill, Part 1"). Ruff could also convince Snotlout to assist such as when he helped her prove that her brother was not bitten by a Lycanwing despite suffering bad effects of numerous bites ("Bad Moon Rising").

"She's my princess! Whatever she wants, she gets!"

- Snotlout to Astrid about his liking for Ruffnut

In How to Train Your Dragon 2, Snotlout is shown to be flirting with Ruff, although she merely grunts in annoyance and flies away. Snotlout is also responsible for saving Ruffnut during the war, when she falls off her dragon, although Fishlegs is another person who saved her too.

Fishlegs Ingerman
Fishlegs and the twins rarely share any screen time together. Sometimes, the twins are seen to bully Fishlegs because of his size, although Fishlegs bests the twins in terms of knowledge. The twins find it annoying that Fishlegs knows a lot of things. Fishlegs attempted to find the twins after they were blasted out of the sky, along with Meatlug but ends up over-exhausting his dragon. Even so, he offered to join Hiccup on his search again and shows worry when Hiccup tells him that there was no sign of them ("A View to a Skrill, Part 1", "A View to a Skrill, Part 2"). Although being slightly annoyed at them at the start of the episode, Fishlegs compliments Ruff for her great work with the Scauldron ("Free Scauldy"). Three years later, Fishlegs was inadvertently married to Ruffnut when her brother said he studied under Berk's officiator. Fishlegs was annoyed when Ruff brought a dead shark, tossed his dragon models out, and pushed out Meatlug. Though Fishlegs was relieved that he was not officially married, he was touched when Ruff kissed him on the cheek ("Snotlout Gets the Axe"). But in the last season and last episode of Race to the Edge, it is shown that he and Snotlout are fighting over Ruffnut at the end of the episode.

In the second film, Fishlegs and Snotlout are now competing for Ruffnut's attention, although you can see Fishlegs is jealous, as well as Snotlout, when Ruffnut starts flirting with Eret, Son of Eret.

Stoick the Vast
Stoick is well aware that the twins are capable of causing dangerous accidents and pranks, as well as notorious for causing mischief. Ruff and Tuff show a level of respect for Stoick, possibly because he's the chief, but also like to make fun of him when he's not around. He's the one who possibly created the saying, "Where there's smoke, there's the twins," in the episode "Zippleback Down". In How to Train Your Dragon 2 along with the other Riders, she searches for Hiccup being enforced by a worried Astrid, against Stoick's rule of no dragon flying while Drago is preparing for war. She also, along with the other Dragon Riders, Valka and Eret, Son of Eret, cries after Stoick's death as well as at his ship burial. She fires a flaming arrow to Stoick's sailing ship in honor of his chieftain legacy, and out of respect.

Eret, Son of Eret
"Eret, Son of Eret was the man of my dreams. My everything!"

- Ruffnut gushing over Eret

When the Riders were in the midst of rescuing Hiccup and Toothless, Eret shot a net at the twins and Ruffnut instantly fell for him as evidenced by the way she said; "Me likey." in slow motion.

This is also shown when she is willing to become Eret's prisoner when she says (in slow motion as well); "Take me." while throwing her hands up in the air (while Tuff stares at her like she's crazy) followed by her and Barf getting caught in Eret's net. On Drago Bludvist's ship, she gazes in awe of Eret's muscles as he sets Stormfly free from Drago's trap. It is also shown when Astrid and Stormfly capture Eret, Ruff immediately wants Eret to ride with her, but instead, Eret pulls away, so Ruffnut's bites at the air. In another scene, Eret has shown some respect to Ruffnut when they work together for a couple of seconds when Eret asks Ruff; "Is anyone coming?", she simply replies back; "I don't know, just keep doing what you're doing.". Ruff and Eret's relationship seems to be respectful, but in an awkward way, although Eret does count Ruff as a friend.

Heather
"Hey, glad you're back. Your dragon rocks."

- Ruffnut to Heather.

When Ruffnut first met Heather in the old series they didn't interact much but seemed to be on neutral grounds. When Heather showed up again three years later, however, Ruffnut was shown to be deeply impressed by her. Despite Ruffnut's warm welcome, Heather never really bonded very closely with her, choosing to become best friends with Astrid instead as they shared more similarities with one another.

In "Edge of Disaster, Part 2", Ruffnut headbutted Heather and later received a punch in the face from Heather as payback.

Viggo Grimborn
"If Viggo, you go."

- Ruffnut

As Viggo is an enemy of the Dragon Riders, it can be implied that Ruffnut dislikes Viggo to some extent. However, she and Tuffnut think that his name sounded cool before they met him.

Trivia

 * Ruffnut is the sixth Viking teen to ride Toothless as of the episode "The Zippleback Experience".
 * Hiccup, the first Viking in the entire film franchise, Astrid, the second Viking in the original film, Snotlout, the third Viking as of the episode "Defiant One", Tuffnut, the fourth Viking, and Fishlegs, the fifth Viking as shown in "The Iron Gronckle".
 * Her name indicates the phrase "rough".
 * In the video game, it's said that Tuff is the older twin by five minutes, but Ruff is slightly taller.  However, the TV show reverses this.
 * In the film, Tuff and Ruff were voiced by T.J. Miller and Kristen Wiig, respectively. In the television series, Ruff is voiced by Julie Marcus, while Tuff has the same voice actor. Ruff changes voice actor again in Defenders of Berk (Andree Vermeulen).
 * The fact that Ruffnut has been voiced by three different actors makes her character the most changed in terms of the cast.
 * Ruff and Tuff are one of the only Vikings on Berk who has a known sibling, in this case, each other. The other only known Viking siblings are Gustav Larson and his baby sibling and Dagur and Heather.
 * Ruff and Tuff both mentioned that they have a large amount of back hair and that they love it dearly in the episode "Zippleback Down", although Tuff said that his back hair had gone up in flames while flying over the forest fire.
 * Ruff and Tuff are one of the only Vikings on Berk to have more than two horns on their helmets (they have nine horns, to be exact). The only other person to have more than two horns on their helmet is Mildew with six horns (but he joins the Outcasts later on).
 * In "A View to a Skrill, Part 2", Ruff states that Outcast food gives her gas, although she has never been shown on-screen to be eating it, so it's quite possible that she was lying so she wouldn't have to go spy on the Berserkers.
 * At the end of "Free Scauldy", Ruff cut her hair to serve as ropes to finish Scauldy's splints, although her hair grew back to its original length as of the episode "Frozen". Since hair takes at least five years to grow from just above chin-length all the way down to waist-length, it's possible that Ruff made hair extensions for herself.
 * Both of Ruff and Tuff have trained a large dragon and later released into the wild. It's also possible that the Dragons they trained (Torch by Tuff and Scauldy by Ruff) are counterparts to each other.
 * Scauldy was trained by Ruff in the episode "Free Scauldy", while Torch was trained by Tuff in the episode "The Terrible Twos".
 * Scauldy is a Tidal Class Dragon (dwells within the water and sprays water), while Torch is a Stoker Class Dragon (dwells on land and manipulates fire and air to attack).
 * Scauldy was hostile and a danger to the Viking teens, while Torch was more friendly from the beginning.
 * As seen in "The Eel Effect", the twins seem to show a level of intelligence when they caught the Eel Pox, doing experiments on air resistance, inventing ice cream, and speaking with advanced vocabulary.
 * In How to Train Your Dragon 2, her and Barf's team colors are light green and yellow.
 * At the end of How to Train Your Dragon 2, when Fishlegs and Snotlout rescue her, she may have fallen for them. She even held out her arms at the end of the film to hug them but lost out to their Dragons.
 * Unlike her brother, Ruff seems to be attached to Barf as an individual rather than as part of Barf and Belch; while Tuff has expressed regret that he and Barf don't talk much, Ruff actively shoved Belch away after the dragons were restored to Berk following the defeat of Drago's Bewilderbeast. Though she obviously cares about Barf and Belch as a whole.
 * According to Tuffnut in a How To Train Your Dragon 2 deleted scene, she has a sixth toe. This is reiterated in the comic, "Burning Midnight".
 * She was afraid of Tuffnut when they were little.
 * She and Tuff hug each other for the first and only time in the whole franchise in the episode "Bad Moon Rising" after her brother believed he was turning into a Lycanwing.
 * Revealed in "Snotlout Gets the Axe", Ruffnut's middle name is Eugene.
 * In the Race to the Edge episode "Snow Way Out", it is revealed she is a great shopper, and that she got both her and her brothers outfits for the price of one.
 * Ruff is the smarter twin (by a little). This suggestion is because of the brief moment in "Shell Shocked, Part 2" when she and Tuff come running to Hiccup, Tuff blurts out the sentence in a jumble. Hiccup asks, "Translation, Ruff?" Then Ruff re-explains her brother's sentence in a smarter more understandable way.
 * Ruff and Tuff both reference modern items such as hospitals and sliced bread for humorous effect.
 * It is revealed in "Defiant One" that Ruffnut once peed in her helmet, there being no other place to use.