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Villain Overview

You see, I know what it is to live in fear. To see my village burnt, my family taken. But even as a boy, left with nothing, I vowed to rise above the fear of dragons, and liberate the people of this world.
~ Drago Bludvist explaining to Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III about his "tragic" background
No dragon can resist the Alpha's command. So, he who controls the Alpha controls them all. Witness true strength. The strength of will over others. And in the face of it, you are nothing.
~ Drago as he controls his Bewilderbeast to brainwash Toothless into making an attempt to kill Hiccup.
STOP ALL PREPARATIONS! We must attack the dragon riders nest at once! We will take down their Alpha! Then we will take Berk!
~ Drago telling his men that after defeating Valka's Alpha, they will go and destroy Berk

Drago Bludvist is the main antagonist of the How to Train Your Dragon franchise.

He is a cruel, vindictive, and megalomaniacal warlord who seeks to amass a massive army of dragons by enslaving them with his Bewilderbeast, and uses his domineering traits to convince entire tribes of chieftains to follow him before proceeding to dominate humankind in a reign of terror (cementing his position as a dire threat). He is Krogan, Eret, the Warlords and the Northern Alliance's former leader, his Bewilderbeast's former master, the archenemy of House Haddock, and the murderer of Stoick the Vast.

He was voiced by Djimon Hounsou in How to Train Your Dragon 2 and the Race to the Edge final episode "King of Dragons, Part 2", who also played Korath the Pursuer in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Mose Jakande in Furious 7 and General Titus in Rebel Moon. In the Race to the Edge episode "Wings of War, Part 1", he was voiced by Hakeem Kae-Kazim, who also played Krogan in the same series, Georges Rutaganda in Hotel Rwanda, Waraabe in Call of Duty: Modern Warface 3, Richard Gladwell in Gotham and Benatu Eshu in Vixen.

Biography[]

Revenge on Dragons[]

Years ago, there was a great gathering of chieftains to discuss the dragon scourge we all faced. Into our midst came a stranger from a strange land, covered in scars and draped in a cloak of dragon skin. He carried no weapon, and spoke softly, saying that he, Drago Bludvist, was a man of the people, devoted to freeing mankind from the tyranny of dragons. He claimed that he alone could control the dragons and that he alone could keep us safe, if… we chose to bow down, and follow him. …Aye, we laughed, too, until he wrapped himself in his cloak and cried out, "Then see how well you do without me!" The rooftop suddenly burst into flames, and from it, armored dragons descended, burning the hall to the ground. I… was the only one to escape.
~ Stoick the Vast explaining his experience with Drago Bludvist.

When the man who went to became known as Drago Bludvist was young, his village was attacked by dragons and his family was killed. Drago himself managed to escape, but not before losing his left arm. From that point on, he lived in fear of another dragon assault until he vowed to himself to rise above his fear and conquer the beasts that had hurt him, becoming a power-hungry and tyrannical warlord. Drago grew up learning how to control dragons with brute force and gathered an army of loyal humans under the guise of a "Dragon God", one who had complete control over dragons. During one of his earliest conquests, Drago found a Bewilderbeast hatchling and then tortured it until it grew to an adult, thus making the beast completely subservient to him out of fear of Drago.

Httyd2-disneyscreencaps

Drago speaks to the chiefs

Years before the events of the first movie, Drago visited a gathering of chieftains in an attempt to sway more people to his cause. He entered the Great Hall where an assembly of chiefs was present, promising them peace and freedom from the threat of dragons, but only if they chose to bow down and follow him. The chiefs took this as a joke and rejected his offer by laughing at him.

WingsOfWarPt1-Drago1

Drago with Krogan

Fueled with ire and revenge by the abuse, Drago left the hall calling back to the chiefs, "Then see how well you do without me!". Moments later, two of Drago's armored dragons descended into the hall through the roof and burned it to the ground, killing all of the chiefs except for Stoick, who narrowly managed to escape with his life. According to the spin off series Race to the Edge, Stoick then saw Drago with Krogan, before they left the scene.

Expanding His Armada[]

Krogan: Wait, Drago, please. I will not fail you again.
Drago: No one fails me twice. Bring me my maps! I'll find another King of Dragons myself.
~ Drago to Krogan shortly before having the latter be executed and claiming he will find another Bewilderbeast himself.

In spite of his failed attempt to recruit Stoick and his fellow chiefs as his followers, however, Drago ultimately went to gain the trust of Ragnar the Rock, Griselda the Grievous and Chaghatai Khan; three ruthless warlords who opted to follow him so they could control all dragons and conquer the world with them. Eventually, Drago met Eret and made him one of his dragon trappers.

Somehow Drago was aware Johann was after the Bewilderbeast. Factoring in another step for his grand plan, he then became the mysterious customer of the Dragon Hunters, of which Johann was the leader. In order to make them succeed, he sends Krogan to help them find it so he can capture it and bring it to him, or to buy it from the Dragon Hunters.

Drago executes Krogan

Drago signaling his men to execute Krogan

Krogan eventually fails to bring Drago a Bewilderbeast. Brimming with ire at his failure, Drago orders for Krogan’s immediate execution. Krogan in sheer horror begs the furious Drago to reconsider his decision, imploring he give him some more time to capture him a Bewilderbeast, promising to never again fail him. However, Drago explains to Krogan his reasoning that nobody would live to fail him twice and proceeds with the order to have Krogan executed. He then claims that he will find a Bewilderbeast himself despite having already captured one in the past, making a very dark implication as it means he also likely killed his previous.

Hearing about the "Dragon Master"[]

A few weeks later, Drago appears after Eret captures some dragons and most of the Dragon Riders. During the confrontation, Snotlout's dragon, Hookfang, was awake and Drago tells his men who try to hold him to let go and shield himself from Hookfang's flames and yells to control as he heavily places his foot on Hookfang's snout.

After hearing that there are more dragons, Drago chokes Eret as he asks how many are there, while Astrid tells that Berk has a lot of dragons, as she says that he will be tracked down and that there is another person, who is Hiccup, who can control the dragons.

As he throws Eret due to leading him to them, he announces that he will take over Berk, as well as ordering Eret to be dead, but is protected by Stormfly, who ends up being shot by a dart.

Battle of the Bewilderbeasts[]

No dragon can resist the Alpha's command. So, he, who controls the Alpha, controls them all.
~ Drago over his dragon the Muddy Bewilderbeast.
Drago summons his bewilderbeast

Drago summoning his Bewilderbeast.

After hearing about this, Drago immediately orders the Northern Alliance to invade the nearest dragon nest and take down its alpha. Here, the dragon riders of Berk interfere, destroying many of the Alliance's traps and weapons all while the alpha Bewilderbeast of the dragon nest emerges. In smug retaliation, Drago unleashes his own Bewilderbeast and allows the two to fight for supremacy while he dueled with Stoick.

Then, Drago meets Hiccup in the heat of battle, with the latter imploring Drago to stop his evil, saying that dragons are not just monsters as well as pointing out the senselessness of the warlord's actions. Drago rejects Hiccup's pleas and instead has the Bewilderbeast (who managed to kill the alpha Bewilderbeast) possess Toothless before giving the order to kill Hiccup.

As a result, Stoick gets killed in an attempt to save Hiccup from being blasted by the possessed Toothless, something that delights Drago. Hiccup, in a fit of despair, briefly disowns Toothless. Toothless and all of the adult dragons present at the time of the attack under the influence of Drago's Bewilderbeast, are captured by Drago. He then rides Toothless and his massive army to Berk.

First Battle with Hiccup and Toothless[]

Never! Come on!
~ Drago ordering his Bewilderbeast to fight.
Drago fights Hiccup

Drago witnessing Hiccup.

Upon arrival at Berk, Drago announces to the villagers that their chief had perished and proceeds to annihilate the village with his Bewilderbeast by attempting to freeze it. Hiccup intervenes not long after and Drago gives him a "chance" to try and win back Toothless' loyalty with the expectation that Hiccup would fail.

To his surprise, Hiccup succeeds, and Toothless breaks free of the Bewilderbeast's psychic grip. He then whacks Toothless with his melee weapon in an attempt to get him back under the Bewilderbeast's influence, but he fails and is dismounted by Toothless. He lands on his Bewilderbeast, where he orders it to kill Hiccup and Toothless, encasing the pair in a large tomb of ice, seemingly killing them.

Drago soaks in his victory before an explosion shatters the ice, revealing both Hiccup and Toothless to be unharmed. Toothless, now with enhanced powers and immunity to the Bewilderbeast's control, challenges the latter for the position of the alpha dragon, repeatedly pummeling the Bewilderbeast with shots. This distracts the Bewilderbeast enough to free the other dragons from its control, and they unleash a massive volley of fireballs, forcing Drago to take cover, but not before several blasts knock off his prosthetic arm, exposing the stump where his real arm used to be. Toothless fires one last huge shot, taking off one of the Bewilderbeast's tusks.

Httyd2-disneyscreencaps

Drago's Bewilderbeast retreats

Drago and his Bewilderbeast are defeated, and the latter retreats into the ocean with Drago still on it. His Bewilderbeast, on the other hand, goes to live in peace in the Hidden World, finally free from his control.

Final Battle with Hiccup and Toothless[]

According to the co-author of an unpublished novel, Richard Hamilton, Drago was abandoned by his Bewilderbeast at sea and taken to an underwater “Viking Atlantis” where he bonded with a Tormentipede dragon, who attached itself to Drago’s arm stump. When Hiccup and Toothless find themselves taken there as well by a Fathomfin dragon, the two men and their dragons engage in an intense battle to the death. Hiccup and Toothless are victorious, and eventually escape the underground city, leaving Drago behind to eventually die.

Drago's Impact[]

A year since Drago’s defeat, and no further along with your dragon army, I see.
~ Grimmel to the Warlords.

A year after his demise, the Northern Alliance ends up being hired by his other followers (after Krogan's execution). The Warlords try to succeed on his plans of world domination, but get constantly foiled by the Dragon Riders, so they hire Grimmel the Grisly, the dragon hunter who hunted almost all Night Furies to extinction. However, Grimmel ends up betraying the trio by taking Toothless and the Light Fury, something Drago would do after his goal succeeded, leaving the dragons they captured to be leaderless. However, Hiccup saves both the dragons and Grimmel falls to his death, leaving Drago's surviving men useless and purposeless once all dragons retreat into the Hidden World. With Grimmel gone for good, dragons are safe until humankind can coexist peacefully with them. Until then, only the Berkians will guard their secret.

Even a decade after his death, his actions still have an impact since he indirectly murdered Stoick the Vast. With dragons losing their previous reputation of Berk as their greatest allies following them being separated thanks to Grimmel's actions, Stoick the Vast also became quickly forgotten with kids disrespecting his legacy. In order to fix these two problems, Chief Hiccup has a play organized to retell the exact moments how humans and dragons befriended in order to make the kids vie dragons as friends and respect the legacy of Stoick the Vast. However, unfortunately for Hiccup, the play deviated too much from history in which it was Stoick that befriended Toothless. Luckily, this has done its job perfectly as Stoick the Vast became respected and dragons were viewed as allies.

Appearance[]

Drago is a 50-year-old, 6'10, 300 lb, well-built, and extremely large man with a grizzly demeanor matching his intimidating and dangerous personality. He wears a prosthetic arm from when his real arm was severed during a dragon attack and wears his long black hair and beard in thick braids.

Multiple scars run over Drago's face and body, evidence of his past encounters with dragons. His attire consists of a dark blue sleeveless shirt, a thick waist belt, and a huge black cape made from dragon skin possibly a Night Fury. Attached to his belt, he wears a loincloth, dark blue trousers, and dark blue boots covered in gray fur.

According to The Art of How to Train Your Dragon 2, Drago was designed to look as racially ambiguous as possible and from a land far from the Vikings of Berk. His appearance had several influences from different countries and cultures. His clothing was based on Slavic origin, while his actual physical appearance was based on people from the Mediterranean and northern Africa.

Personality[]

Men who kill without reason cannot be reasoned with.
~ Stoick describing Drago's personality.

Drago is an authoritative, erratic, cantankerous, two-faced, cold-blooded, murderous, violent, and obstreperous warlord. Notorious for his egotism, desire for control, and inhuman cruelty, Drago considers anyone who disagrees with him a threat to his position of power and subsequently needs to be eliminated. Stoick and Valka understood only too well that reasoning with him was a futile endeavor. When he encountered Hiccup and saw his mastery of dragons, he attempted to win Hiccup's loyalty over and justify his own actions, claiming he was a man of the people who would free mankind from the fear of dragons.

However, much of his behavior was on the contrary, proving his hypocrisy. While he is more demonstratively violent and inhumane to dragons, as he chooses to oppress and enslave them through fear, his treatment of humans was not better by much, if at all. He not only shows his additional pettiness, but also further demonstrates his cruelty when ridiculed by the chieftains: to which he responded by burning alive and killing all of them. However, the only reason he allowed Astrid and the other Berkian hostages to ridicule him was so he could get answers from them. He hides his prosthetic left arm with his cape from everyone because of his narcissistic need to appear invincible.

While he was almost as effective at dragon training as Hiccup, his approach was radically different. As opposed to Hiccup's compassionate and reward-based training style, Drago utilized psychological spirit-breaking and learned helplessness to totally quell any remotely rebellious impulses and render his dragons totally subdued in his presence. Hiccup and Toothless had a warm relationship based on trust and mutual respect, while Drago had a toxic and manipulative relationship with all his dragons.

Drago often utilized his tragic story of his family being killed and having his village burned as a child. He also defends his choice to subjugate dragons due to one removing his arm albeit in unspecific circumstances and at an unspecific time. Despite his claims of wanting to liberate humans from dragons, in actuality, he seeks to form a pyramid with himself at the pinnacle, dragons below him, and humans at the very bottom.

Despite his obvious madness, Drago possesses complete mastery over dragons. Even the most fearsome of creatures were completely helpless and afraid in his presence. However, his greatest weakness was that he could not respect or even understand the love or bond between a dragon and a person. Drago's ultimate undoing was his inability to understand dragons being peaceful, nonviolent, and elegant creatures that Hiccup spoke about; in his eyes, they were nothing but warmongering and obstreperous monsters, which led to him being utterly dumbfounded when Hiccup was able to get Toothless to break the connection between him and the Alpha out of sheer loyalty for one another. Overall, Drago proves Stoick's point that some men are so evil and destructive that they are unable to be reasoned with.

Powers and Abilities[]

  • Strength and Fighting Skills: Despite the disadvantage of his missing arm, Drago is a formidable fighter and opponent to both humans and dragons, being able to defeat Valka with relative ease and hold his own very well against Stoick the Vast. However, despite his combat skills, he rarely uses them himself unless necessary, preferring to rely on his dragons and henchmen to do his dirty work.
  • Control of Dragons: Unlike Hiccup, Valka, and the rest of the dragon riders, Drago enslaves his dragons with brute force and intimidation, and is able to use his Bewilderbeast to brainwash any who refused to follow him.
  • Strategy: Drago is an outstanding strategist and tactician, as he is able to easily conquer enemy positions. However, Drago prefers brute force, believing it to be more effective than strategy, cunning and tactic.
  • Leadership: Drago is more than capable of leading his vast and enormous army of dragon hunters and dragons in armor.
  • Intimidation: Drago has an extremely short fuse, and a very large amount of anger. This anger alone is capable of striking fear into the hearts of practically anyone, such as Krogan, dragons, and even the fearless Stoick Haddock.

Quotes[]

Then see how well you do without me!
~ Drago leaves the Hall and sends some dragons he enslaved to burn it down.
I don't want excuses! I want the King of Dragons!
~ Drago demanding the Bewilderbeast from Krogan.
Get to the point!
~ Drago ordering Krogan to say what happened to the Bewilderbeast.
No one fails me twice.
~ Drago neglects Krogan's favor of forgiveness.
I'll find another King of Dragons myself.
~ Drago realizes that he now has to find another Bewilderbeast.
You belong to me now!
~ Drago to Hookfang.
"Dragon Master"? I alone control the dragons!
~ Drago boasting to Astrid of his control over dragons.
First there was one rider and now all of Berk?! You led them to ME!
~ Drago to Eret.
Whatever comes, keep hitting the mountain. We need to draw the Alpha out.
~ Drago ordering his men to fire at the mountain.
The Alpha! Now we have a fight!
~ Drago during the first showdown between him and Hiccup and after the Alpha has been released.
I've waited a long time for this!
~ Drago to Valka during their fight.
You? I watched you burn!
~ Drago to Stoick during their fight.
We've won! Now, finish her!
~ Drago ordering his Bewilderbeast to kill Valka.
This is the Great Dragon Master? The son of Stoick the Vast? What shame he must feel.
~ Drago meeting Hiccup for the first time.
Well, you need dragons to conquer other dragons.
~ Drago to Hiccup.
NO! Let ME show YOU!
~ Drago preparing to show Hiccup the great power of his Bewilderbeast.
Your chief is dead! No one can protect you now!
~ Drago seizing power over Berk.
You certainly are hard to get rid of, I'll say that.
~ Drago to Hiccup.
He's not yours anymore. He belongs to the Alpha! But, please, oh, Great Dragon Master, try to take him. He will not miss a second time.
~ Drago to Hiccup.
Take control of it! (Hiccup: Shut it out, Toothless!) Stop them! (Hiccup: Now!)
~ Drago ordering his Bewilderbeast to take control of Toothless.
Fight!
~ Drago's last word.

Trivia[]

  • Drago is the only villain in the HTTYD franchise who appears in both a film and TV series.
  • He appears to have a cape made of dragon hide that can withstand the fire of a Monstrous Nightmare. The cape appears to be made of Night Fury skin, meaning he may have been allies once with Grimmel the Grisly, the overarching antagonist in the franchise and main antagonist in the third film, the latter of which has hunted down the Night Furies to near-extinction.
  • Drago is the second most foremost antagonist of the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, behind Grimmel, as he was the main person behind Krogan's part of Dragons: Race to the Edge, where he allies himself with Johann to help him find the King of Dragons and bring the Bewilderbeast to him or buy it from the Dragon Hunters, and his death had posthumously set the events of the third film since he indirectly killed Stoick, which made Hiccup chief and makes a dragon-human utopia, and his death led to the Warlords being in command, who then hire Grimmel to capture all of Berk's dragons. However, Grimmel is proven to be arguably more dangerous and cruel as Drago enslaved dragons to his will due to being driven by revenge while Grimmel hunted them out of pure sadism and delusions, and a desire for fame.
  • He shares various facial characteristics with his enslaved Bewilderbeast: Braids, wrinkles, broad chin, darker-than-usual skin tones, well-built physique, and so on. This point contrasts with Valka's mask.
  • One of Drago's dragon-capturing machines is called the Scrambler. It makes a screeching noise that paralyzes a dragon into submission, and then Drago can bend the animal to his will. It is possible that Drago may have seen a Screaming Death, and had been unable to capture it. However, he could have figured out that the scream it emits temporarily disorients dragons and possibly based Scrambler's design on this concept.
  • His last name is pronounced "Blood-fist" by many fans. This may be a pun on "bloody fist". However, one may argue that he may have been named after Blud, a fairy from Slavic mythology known for causing disorientation and leading people to wander aimlessly round and round.
  • Director Dean DeBlois originally stated in his teasers that Drago would appear in How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, saying "You have to wait until the third film to actually see where Drago's character goes. He is a lot more complex than he's presented in this second installment". Drago was even going to be redeemed by the end of the film after his defeat.
    • However, halfway through the production of the film, Drago was scrapped from production as Steven Spielberg warned DeBlois that Drago's redemption story required much more screen time than they could provide. Drago's death was eventually confirmed to have taken place underwater, between the second and third films.
  • Ryker Grimborn's appearance is similar to the early concept art of Drago Bludvist, originally known back then as "Darko".
  • Drago is considered as an evil counterpart and foil to Hiccup in many ways as both lost their families due to dragons including one of their left limbs (Hiccup lost his leg whereas Drago lost his arm). Whereas Hiccup is shown to tame dragons and give them love and compassion, Drago is shown to control them by force. Hiccup is shown to hold care for his family and cherish them alongside dragonkind, Drago Bludvist himself sheds his care for his family and only cares about himself and enslaving dragons and becoming more powerful. If Hiccup wasn't raised to care for his family members and give love to dragons, he would've grown up to be like Drago Bludvist.
  • He can also be seen as a dark mirror of Toothless. Toothless and Drago both lost their family (Toothless by the Night Fury genocide and Drago by the war with dragons). However, Toothless was willing to throw away his rage towards humans and develop friendship, while Drago refused to accept the solution though it would bring him peace. If Toothless had not met Hiccup and accept him as a friend rather than an enemy, then he would have ended up like Drago Bludvist.
  • How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy, both of which Djimon Hounsou starred in, came out in 2014.

External Links[]

Navigation[]

           How to Train Your Dragon logo Villains

Outcast Tribe
Alvin the Treacherous (DreamWorks) | Excellinor the Witch | Mildew | Savage | Thugheart

Northern Alliance
Drago Bludvist | Drago's Bewilderbeast | Eret | Warlords

Dragon Flyers
Krogan | Mr. Murderous Pile of Yak Dung | Flyer Leader

Berserker Tribe
Chief Berserk | Dagur the Deranged | Savage | Frozen Skrill

Dragon Hunters
Johann | Viggo Grimborn | Ryker Grimborn | Cleve | Ingar Ingerman | Dragon Hunter Commander | Fight Master

Dragons
Green Death | Purple Death | Furious | Venomous Vorpent | Exterminators | Red Death | Toothless' Nemesis | Frozen Skrill | Screaming Death | Rogue Submaripper | Firecomb Crasher | Hookfang's Nemesis | Drago's Bewilderbeast | Grimmel's Deathgrippers | Slinkwing Trio (Lurke, Vizza & Snoop) | Fault Ripper | Thunder's Nemesis | Flame Throwers | Sky Torcher | Jörmungandr

Others
Grimbeard the Ghastly | Fat Consul | Kidnappers | Norbert the Nutjob | Hairy Scary Librarian | Snotface Snotlout | Amos | Calder | Gruffnut Thorston | Grimmel the Grisly | Magnus Finke | Axel Finke | Waldondo del Mundo | Erik the Wretched | Svetlana the Sly | Arno | Leonard Burne | Wilma Sledkin | Eir Stormheart | Nikora Stormheart

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