Gustav Larson

Gustav Larsen is the son of Mrs. Larsen. He is the first notable character in the franchise to be a child. He was named the Dragon Academy's junior-apprentice-auxiliary-reserve-back-up-replacement-rider-in training-fourth class by Hiccup.

Personality
Although young at heart, he shows a loyalty and faithfulness to his mother, despite the fact that she had traded him for a "Stone of Good Fortune" and still remained close with her. This trait rubs off on his dragon, Fanghook, as he is loyal to Gustav. He admires Snotlout and his ability to train a dragon to the point where he gets his own dragon named Fanghook. Gustav often times mimics Snotlout's personality, although he is easily scared, mostly because he is younger, as shown twice to run away: once in Gem of a Different Color and he attempted to flee in The Flight Stuff, although he was stopped by Snotlout.

Although much too young, he wants to become a Dragon Trainer and often sneaks in to the Training Academy to play. Even though he and his dragon, Fanghook, got off on the wrong start, both dragon and trainer show a close bond with each other.

In Dragons: Riders of Berk
Gustav was traded by his mother to Snotlout for a "Stone of Good Fortune" (Actually a Changewing egg). Snotlout had the boy work as his assistant, with Gustav starting to act like him. He was later ordered to return to his mother by an angry Fishlegs. He is obviously at an impressionable age. He quickly picks up on Snotlout's way of speaking and acting. With Snotlout as his role model, Gustav quickly begins to annoy the other teens. When Fishlegs orders him to return to his mother, he does so in tears. Probably, The whole ordeal of being sold and having angry dragons attack his island obviously weighed heavily on him.

In Dragons: Defenders of Berk


Gustav was allowed into the bunker by Ruffnut and Tuffnut during Arvin Dale's Fire and the Flightmare's attack, much to Snotlout's apparent dismay and annoyance.

Gustav then got his own dragon, a Monstrous Nightmare named Fanghook, who is a played name of Hookfang. The reason he gets Fanghook is because after Snotlout tried to train Gustav to ride Hookfang and Hiccup pretended to encourage Gustav to do so, he started to feel unhappy about not being a true dragon rider with his own dragon. After Hiccup and Fishlegs tell him that he needs experience to be a true dragon rider, he went looking for a dragon of his own preference and settled on Fanghook. This ends with him seeming to give up Fanghook but fakes it to Hiccup and Snotlout and continues to train Fanghook afterwards in secret.

Gustav functioned as Snotlout's arms and legs when he was paralyzed by the Speed Stingers, calling themselves "Guslout." He helped steer Hookfang and showed the riders the cave where the Stingers were.

Race to the Edge
In Gone Gustav Gone, Gustav went to meet up with Hiccup at Dragon's Edge, much to annoyance to the Riders. Unfortunately, he and Fanghook were still too inexperienced. After annoying the Riders, Gustav uses the Dragon Eye, which he believes is a treasure map. He nearly gets caved in, only for Hiccup to save him. Hiccup gives Gustav a stern talking to, telling him he's too irresponsible, immature and not trustworthy to be a dragon rider. Having enough belittling, Gustav leaves Dragon's Edge but end up being captured by Dagur. The two of them then strike a deal to get the Dragon Eye. Hiccup delivers it, thinking Gustav is in trouble, but soon picks up on Gustav's plan. The young Viking leads Dagur to the island from before, revealing he set Dagur up for a trap, with Hiccup's help. When Dagur drops the Dragon Eye into the chasm, Gustav jumps in after it. He, Hiccup and their dragons manage to make it out. Hiccup apologizes about before, stating he's still irresponsible, immature and reckless, but seeing how he dealt with Dagur, he does have what it takes to be a dragon rider, someday. Gustav then heads back to Berk.

Appearance
Gustav is about 12 years old in the first and second seasons. He worn a light grayish sleeveless tunic with Hiccup's stitching and Snotlout's vest, helmet, belt buckle, pants, and fur boots. At the age of 16, he still wears the same helmet, but now his same tunic comes with Snotlout's stitching, and he also wears Ruffnut's old vest, Snotlout's belt buckle, and wears Astrid's shoulder guards as knee pads. On his arms, he wears Tuffnut's old cloth bracers, and around his neck, his old necklace with a dragon's claw or tooth.

Skills
Gustav is the youngest Trainer at the Academy, and one could argue he is not the greatest either. Though he did learn some things from Snotlout. This led into him training Fangook.


 * Dragon Training and Riding: Gustav is, as mentioned above, the youngest trainer at the Academy. When Snotlout was convinced he was going to die, he decided to recruit Gustav. Snotlout taught him about Hookfang, "the most lethal dragon in the known world." Gustav, however, wasn't very great at this. Snotlout did teach him enough to succeed at training his own dragon, a Nightmare named Fanghook. Thanks to him, he was able to teach him a couple of commands, such as "Fire it up!" Gustav even learn by tapping the neck on Monstrous Nightmare able to make turn in flight as he shown on Hookfang.
 * "Sheep Rider": He was able to ride a sheep, pretending it was a dragon so he can prepare to have one of his own.

Relationships
Fanghook: Gustav first encounters Fanghook when the dragon was hunting boars for food. After Gustav manages to get his attention, he attacks Gustav. After a while, they bond enough for Gustav to get on his back (although he was still too small to sit tight properly, especially without a saddle). After he and Fanghook help on the scouting mission, Hiccup tells him to release Fanghook into the wild, in which Fanghook unwillingly obligates, which saddens him and his dragon. After Hiccup and Snotlout leave, Gustav calls his dragon back and continues to train him in secret. Fanghook shows affection for Gustav by biting him, but not enough to hurt the young boy. Thier bond for next three years grows much stronger as shown to be really protective with each other now as Fanghook saves his life from falling off a cliff.

Mrs. Larson: Gustav is shown to have a close relationship with his mother. He remained loyal and obedient to her despite the fact that she had traded him for the Stone of Good Fortune. She also doesn't seem to pay attention to him as Gustav can be gone for three days and she wouldn't notice.

Snotlout Jorgenson: Gustav is shown to admire Snotlout, often times mimicking his action and personality. He showed extreme loyalty to him when he was traded from his mother. Snotlout stated that he had grown to like Gustav, even to the point of entrusting Hookfang to him when he thought he was going to die and training him. Snotlout grew annoyed when  Gustav began to "replace" him and was not hesitant to throw him out; however, Snotlout was there to comfort him (in the Snotlout way), when Gustav became frightened after being caught in Dagur's trap.

Hookfang: When Snotlout was convinced he was going to die, he wanted to train Gustav to ride Hookfang, becoming his replacement in the Academy. Though Gustav really did his best and was shown to like Hookfang, this plan didn't work. This made him to find his own dragon and train it. Since the training he is done with Hookfang, he met a wild Nightmare that Snotlout said that Monstrous Nightmares are the most lethal weapon of the known world and named him after it possible a way to show Hookfang his way to be thankful for his help.

Hiccup: Gustav is shown to listen to Hiccup about being too young to be riding or training dragons. Though he shown to dislike it a lot since he really determined to have dragon of his own. Though believing Snotlout was going to die he was really excited to become dragon rider for Hookfang. Though everyone told Gustav he was still not ready even Hiccup did watch him to see his training from Snotlout lessons but it was failure. He sadly told him to leave again which he went to prove himself to Hiccup that he will find his own dragon named Fanghook. Though still thinking this is still mistake but he gave him chance to see what he has to be dragon rider. He even try to encourage each mistake he made but until Snotlout was revealed he wasn't going to die and he watch Snotlout throw him out the academy. Gustav overheard about the mission about Dagur new invention to try again to prove himself but came failure when he was caught by the trap of the invention but Hiccup use his battle cry to tell Gustav use for his dragon to set free from the trap. Which he escaped thanks to Hiccup but was frightened how dangers this was decided to leave but saw Hiccup get trapped by Dagur, but he still was afraid but Snotlout told him advice to save Hiccup which they were successful. But Hiccup told Gustav that he still not ready to be dragon rider so he made a deal with the young boy that he can learn by working in the Dragon Academy, which he was very excited. Though Hiccup told Gustav to release Fanghook back to the forest which he watch how hard it was for Gustav to do so but he was very proud of him to do the right reason.

Astrid: Gustav, like Snotlout, has a one-sided crush on Astrid.

Trivia

 * His dragon, Fanghook, is named after Hookfang, which is Snotlout's dragon.
 * Due to the error in RoB ep 18, it is believed that Gustav and Hildegard were siblings. This is incorrect, as their mothers have different character designs. Gustav's mother incorrectly said Hildegard was her baby, though the two moms were both seen earlier.
 * Gustav is the youngest dragon rider, though he is unofficially part of the Dragon Academy
 * He is the second person to have a dragon who is not in the Dragon Academy.
 * Like Astrid and Hildegard, Gustav's name is one of the few young villagers who's name isn't an insult.
 * Gustav has the same helmet and vest as Snotlout. The stitching on his tunic is the same pattern as Hiccup's.
 * At first glance, he looks like a miniature version of Hiccup.
 * In Cast Out Part I and Dawn of the Dragon Racers, a boy that bears a strong resemblance to Gustav is seen, though he has a different helmet and clothing.
 * According to Art Brown and Douglas Sloan, Gustav is 12 in the first two seasons. He is the same age as the teens in the first movie in Race to the Edge this will make him 16 years old.