Meatlug

"Oh, she's fierce alright — on the outside. But on the inside, she's as soft as a bed of rose petals. Aren't you, my little baby?"

- Fishlegs about Meatlug to Heather

Meatlug is Fishlegs Ingerman's Gronckle who first appeared in How to Train Your Dragon.

Official Description
"Unlike most Gronckles, she is very sweet and affectionate, especially towards Fishlegs. She even licks his feet before he goes to bed. Yuck!"

- Dragons: Rise of Berk

"Unlike other Gronckles, Meatlug is actually a very sweet and affectionate dragon, especially with her rider, Fishlegs. Meatlug and Fishlegs do everything together — fly, research dragon trivia and, of course, eat!"

- Dragonpedia

"Meatlug is an affectionate creature who loves to fly, cuddle and discover new dragons. She has a huge appetite — when she swallows more than one rock at a time, she will occasionally spit out a brand new substance in lava form."

- Dragonpedia stat card

"Meatlug is probably the sweetest, kindest, most affectionate Dragon you'll ever meet. She shares the curious, inquisitive nature of her Rider and best friend, Fishlegs Ingerman. Together they discover new Dragons, new plants, new potions...Meatlug even helped create her own type of reinforced metal, Gronckle Iron. Meatlug's gentle nature defies every belief held by Vikings before the end of the Dragon War. Just please don't mention the War around her — she lost family in the Arena before Berk and Dragons lived in harmony. These days, Meatlug lives among the Berkians and can often be found near the Hatchery. She gets along wonderfully with the newborn Dragons and is often as motherly with them as she is with Fishlegs. In spite of her cuddly and friendly reputation, Meatlug will challenge anyone that messes with her Berk family or innocent wild Dragons. What she and Fishlegs lack in raw power, they make up for in strategy and tactics: she's learned a variety of special moves such as the Gale Force Gronckle, Gas and Smash (it's as bad as it sounds), and the Stop, Drop, and Hover."

- Dragons: Titan Uprising

Physical Appearance
According to Fishlegs Ingerman, Meatlug is 14 feet long, has an 18-foot wingspan, and weighs 5,724 pounds, as he states in "Heather Report, Part 1". She is about the same height as Gobber the Belch, though standing on her hind legs, she is much taller, as shown in "Animal House".

In How to Train Your Dragon, Meatlug is dark brown; however, in How to Train Your Dragon 2 and DreamWorks Dragons: The Series. She is also covered with small spots and bumps that are either pink, purple, or a gradient of the two colors.

Personality
After the events of How to Train Your Dragon, Meatlug is shown to be the mellowest. Similar to her rider's personality, Meatlug has shown that she can fear things very much but tries to get through her fear. She's also shown to have more bit of dog-like personality such as when she gets upset she starts to whine adorably.

Meatlug is also motherly, which allows her to get along with many dragon hatchlings, along with young children, as seen in Gift of the Night Fury when she plays with kids on Berk. Her maternal side is shown several times in DreamWorks Dragons: The Series such as when she cared for Speedy by nudging him forward for his rehabilitation in "The Next Big Sting", regurgitated her lava to feed the New Protector in "Shell Shocked, Part 1", and stood by a Changewing egg in "Gem of a Different Color". Meatlug is also motherly towards Fishlegs as well; she comforts the latter when he's down and cares about him very much and is usually by his side.

In "Worst in Show", Meatlug has shown that she can still be hostile to enemies, despite being very kind and loving.

In "Big Man on Berk", Meatlug is shown to despise loneliness, as evident when Fishlegs Ingerman was hypnotized into Thor Bonecrusher and started neglecting her.

Abilities and Skills
Thanks to her training with Fishlegs, Meatlug's skills have risen above the ordinary level of those of a regular wild Gronckle.

Fire: Like all Gronckles, Meatlug eats rocks in order to spew fire in the form of balls of molten lava. However, a hidden ability of her is that the type of lava she produces depends on what type of minerals she ate. This was how Fishlegs and Gobber discovered Gronckle Iron, as shown in "The Iron Gronckle".

Intelligence and Communication Skills: Meatlug is shown to be very intelligent as she understands Fishlegs and humans in general quite well. She usually knows when Fishlegs needs company or comfort — though, this isn't always two-sided — and has been trained to understand Fishlegs' hand gestures as commands such as when her rider saved Ruffnut and Tuffnut Thorston from a breaking tree branch in "Twinsanity". She also figured out quickly that Toothless had eaten an eel in "The Eel Effect". She has also learned how to recognize her rider's dragon call that acts as a beacon in case she and Fishlegs get separated, as shown in "Twinsanity". She came up with the idea to use her powerful gas in order to free herself from the Screaming Death's mouth. She has even called other Gronckles to help feed a starving Eruptodon since she was able to do so when asked by Hiccup.

Endurance and Stamina: Her skin is made mostly of rock like body armor making her an endurable opponent. She has been hit in the face point blank by Alvin the Treacherous and was still able to stand to hold her ground. Her stamina has shown to be about one day long, before she dropped on the ground, exhausted.

Strength: Meatlug with the added weight of her rider is able to pin down some dragons, allowing her to stop dragons like Toothless and Hookfang. ("The Eel Effect", How to Train Your Dragon 2) She was shown to have great resilience as she was trained by Snotlout to enhance her strength by ramming into a boulder several times before it cracked at fell apart. She has been known to lift heavy weights as she was still able to lift a dragon as heavy as Toothless and a Skrill while under the weight of her rider and also able to carry female Snidgetail. She has also been seen carrying the combined weight of Fishlegs, Astrid, Hiccup, and Mala while still remaining airborne in the intense heat of a volcano.

Senses: Meatlug has shown to have an amazing sense of smell. She was able to find Fishlegs under his bed, detect hostile Vikings such as Alvin the Treacherous, Savage, and Mildew, ("Worst in Show") find a dragon root, ("A Tale of Two Dragons") and also manage to find a Changewing egg that was buried in the sand. ("Gem of a Different Color")

Fighting Skills: Meatlug has learned some powerful skills from her rider that come in handy to defeat her enemies.


 * Stop, Drop, and Hover: Created to be a rescue skill, Meatlug flies up in the air with her rider, then falls down at great speed.


 * Gale Force Gronckle: Meatlug will start spinning at a very high speed using her head and clubbed tail to attack. The ability is shown to be so powerful that it can knock a full-grown Typhoomerang out of the air, as demonstrated in "The Eel Effect".


 * Gas: When trapped in the Screaming Death's mouth, Meatlug released gas by farting. The Screaming Death immediately let the Gronckle go in disgust and surprise, as shown in "Cast Out, Part 2".


 * Gas, and Tail-bludgeon: Meatlug waits for an enemy to get close, passes gas in their face to stun them, then uses her tail to finish them off, as demonstrated in "Tunnel Vision".

Fishlegs Ingerman
In DreamWorks Dragons: The Series, Fishlegs and Meatlug establish a very endearing relationship, very similar, if not equal in strength to Hiccup and Toothless' relationship.

Meatlug was used for training against new beginners as she attacked Fishlegs. Being her rider, Fishlegs and Meatlug are shown to be extremely close, to the point that their relationship is slightly odd; Fishlegs often refers to himself as Meatlug's "daddy".

Meatlug has been known to lick Fishlegs' feet before going to bed, as seen in "How to Start a Dragon Academy", while her rider has been shown to sing her songs, as seen in "Gem of a Different Color", and tell her stories about "Princess Meatlug".

In "A Tale of Two Dragons", Meatlug was visibly worried about Fishlegs when he got close to Gobber's traps, showing protective she is of her rider.

In "Frozen", Meatlug also protected Fishlegs from a pack of wild Speed Stingers.

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III
Hiccup and Meatlug did not have the best first impressions, as dragons were considered to be enemies of Berk. When Hiccup first met Meatlug in the arena, she tried to kill him, but was fortunately stopped by Gobber the Belch. In How to Train Your Dragon, she was outsmarted by Hiccup, because he used dragon nip on her. Later, he helped Fishlegs train her. Hiccup briefly rode Meatlug by accident, resulting in him landing on the Rookery. (Gift of the Night Fury) In the episode, "The Eel Effect", Meatlug 'hugged' and licked him.

In "The Iron Gronckle", Hiccup's metal leg briefly became stuck to Meatlug when she became magnetized as he was trying to calm her down from her panic, resulting in him spending some time dangling from Meatlug until Fishlegs and Toothless were able to get her to expel the magnetic rocks.

Toothless
The two dragons appear to be quite close friends. Toothless was shown to comfort Meatlug, like when Fishlegs was losing perspective in "Worst in Show", assisted her in keeping the Frozen Skrill from escaping in "A View to a Skrill, Part 1", and she even helped him to be rescued from having the Eel Pox to get the cure from their riders during the episode, "The Eel Effect". The two are also shown playing together by rolling around in the Race to the Edge, Season 5 episode, "Dire Straits".

Their relationship could be the same as their riders. Toothless wasn't too impressed that Meatlug was trying to be fierce to face off the Catastrophic Quaken, as he showed her she was wrong by using a small plasma blast that easily stunned her. ("Quake, Rattle and Roll")

By the end of How to Train Your Dragon 2, Meatlug acknowledged Toothless as the new Alpha Dragon.

Astrid Hofferson
Though they are not particularly close to one another, Meatlug did give Astrid a lift out of the volcano in "Out of the Frying Pan", and then gave her a ride when she saved her from Drago Bludvist's traps in How to Train Your Dragon 2.

Gobber the Belch
She has shown at first to be like other dragons to be aggressive. She was going to try to kill Hiccup, but she was interrupted by Gobber to be pulled back to her cage. She has shown later to like him when he became more of a friend to Fishlegs.

Later, she was sick from eating too many rocks and she was helped by Gobber by tickling her with a feather. After that, she with Fishlegs and Gobber created Gronckle Iron. Later, she was fed different types of rocks only to make her a living magnet. Later, when they caught her, Gobber tickled her again to spit out the magnetic rock. For thanks, in the episode, "The Iron Gronckle", Gobber made her a pair of earrings as a gift for producing Gronckle Iron. It can also be assumed that they are on good terms.

Hookfang
She was shown to get a bit of bullying from Hookfang as she was frightened from his shadow in the episode of "In Dragons We Trust". But she protected him from the Fireworms when he ran out of hot shots. She even got hit a few times for showing no concern for him at all and got hit from his wing when he flew in the Dragon Training Academy. He also used his tail whip on her to get the sheep from her rider in the second film. Hookfang also helped in training Meatlug and Fishlegs to become fierce, as he got body slammed by her. She even tried to protect both Hookfang from Speed Stingers when they were already stung by Speedy. Their relationship could have been greater than their riders, but could be mostly Hookfang didn't notice too well that he caused problems for her.

Snotlout Jorgenson
"Too slow."

- Snotlout about Meatlug

Although Meatlug has been teased by Snotlout many times from being the slowest dragon of the group, she doesn't let it affect her. She used her body slam on him with extra weight with her rider to show off her new skill. Meatlug was even saved by Snotlout from Alvin and gave him a ride to find Hookfang as well. She even got trained by Snotlout to become a fierce dragon in order to face off the Catastrophic Quaken Tormentor.

In "Total Nightmare", Snotlout said that Meatlug was too slow for him when he was finding a replacement for Hookfang and he gets her too upset.

Stoick the Vast
Meatlug showed some relation to the chieftain of Berk, as Stoick was looking for a dragon of his own. Though, he soon realized that her personality was too motherly for him and not a true dragon, as shown in "How to Pick Your Dragon". She accidentally crashed into him by full speed tackle when she and her rider were trying to escape from the Training Academy with Dagur's dragon root.

Because she was very lonely when her rider became hypnotized from Snotlout to become a worthy Viking, she jumped on the leader of the tribe to lick him so she wouldn't too be lonely. This could be another reason why she licked him because he might understand losing a best friend such as Thornado.

Tormentor
"We aren't going anywhere, right, girl?"

- Fishlegs, determined to achieve his quest of returning Dark Deep to the Gronckles

At first, Meatlug was very frightened by Tormentor when he took over Dark Deep itself, forcing all the Gronckles to leave the island and migrate to Dragon's Edge. The situation made Meatlug upset and later on grew angry. Meatlug then trained with Fishlegs and Snotlout to take on Tormentor, though against Hiccup's advice. Soon on when Snotlout, Fishlegs, and Meatlug ventured to Dark Deep, Tormentor faced Meatlug and her rider head-on. Meatlug, wanting to retreat as instinct, also wanted to return Dark Deep to the Gronckles. Meatlug faced Tormentor accordingly, realizing in the process that the latter was just lonely. As a result, Meatlug formed a friendly relationship with Tormentor, and even took a nuzzle to it.

Windshear
"Meatlug just went after Windshear."

- Fishlegs, after the fight between the two

Meatlug tried to play with Windshear during the first time they met but only made the latter feel uncomfortable, as shown in "Have Dragon Will Travel, Part 1".

Upon meeting each other again in "To Heather or Not to Heather", a fight erupted between the two, as Meatlug's loving and playful personality agitates Windshear, who does not wish to get along with the other dragons because of distrust. When they worked together as a team, the hostile tension between them is later substituted with friendship after they swapped riders.

Dagur the Deranged
Meatlug, like any other dragon, had known that Dagur was a long time enemy for a few years; however, when Dagur changed his ways, she helped him to train Shattermaster and he became trustworthy. Most likely, though, she wanted to help because he's riding a Gronckle.

Shattermaster
Meatlug helps Shattermaster to become better in Dragon Training in order to bond more with his rider, Dagur, which became more of success. Shattermaster is shown to be very happy to learn from Meatlug's skills.

Trivia

 * Meatlug's name was first revealed in Gift of the Night Fury.
 * Meatlug likes to play Toss the Sheep with Fishlegs, as demonstrated in "Worst in Show".
 * Meatlug has been shown to be able to walk on her hind legs and can stand up for an entire night just like Toothless, but prefers walking on all four of her feet.
 * Being a Gronckle, Meatlug is the only Academy dragon who is immune to dragon root.
 * According to Richard Hamilton, Meatlug is the youngest of the Riders' dragons.
 * According to Fishlegs Ingerman, Meatlug's favorite food are granite, pyrite, and silicates, as he states in "We Are Family, Part 1", "A Grim Retreat", and "The Wings of War, Part 1" respectively.
 * In How to Train Your Dragon and Gift of the Night Fury, Meatlug's wings beat like a hummingbird where one can't see the individual beats; however, in DreamWorks Dragons: The Series, each beat of the wing can easily be seen.
 * In Gift of the Night Fury, Meatlug was incorrectly thought to be a male and her gender was revealed when the twins found her eggs.
 * Ironically, while Fishlegs is very knowledgeable about the traits and biology of various dragon species, he is unable to tell that Meatlug is a female prior to her laying eggs in the short.
 * In "How to Start a Dragon Academy", Fishlegs mentioned that Meatlug had a cousin who was killed during Dragon Training in the Berk Dragon Training Academy.
 * In Brazil, Meatlug's name is Batatão, which means "big potato".