Drago Bludvist

"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 to Hiccup.

Drago Bludvist is the main antagonist of the How to Train Your Dragon animated franchise. He was the main antagonist of How To Train Your Dragon 2, the ultimate antagonist in the DreamWorks Dragons TV series, specifically in Dragons: Race to the Edge, and a posthumous antagonist of How to Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World.

He is a cruel, aggressive, treacherous, cunning, hateful, and megalomaniacal warlord who sought to amass a massive army of men and dragons by enslaving dragons with the Muddy Bewilderbeast, and convincing entire tribes of chieftains to follow him before proceeding to dominate humankind in a reign of terror. He is Krogan's former leader, the Muddy Bewilderbeast's former master, Eret's former leader, the archenemy of Hiccup and Valka (until his death whereupon Grimmel the Grisly takes up the mantle), and the killer of Stoick the Vast.

He is voiced by Djimon Hounsou in How to Train Your Dragon 2 and the Race to the Edge final episode "The King of Dragons Part 2", who also played Korath the Pursuer in the 2014 Guardians of the Galaxy film, and Mose Jakande in Fast & Furious 7 while in the Race to the Edge episode "Wings of War Part 1", he was voiced by Hakeem Kae-Kazim who also voiced his right-hand Krogan in the series.

Past
"Years ago, there was a great gathering of chieftains to discuss the dragon scourge we all faced. Into our mist came a stranger from a strange land, covered in scars and draped in a cloak made 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. We all laughed, until he rapped himself in his cloak and cried out "Then see how well you do without me!" The rooftops suddenly burst into flames and from it armored dragons descended burning the hall to the ground. I was the only one to escape."

- Stoick about Drago Bludvist

Drago's early life was shrouded in mystery, but Drago himself revealed that he once lived with a fear of dragons as a little boy, and had supposedly lost his home, his family and his left arm to them. Vowing to "rise above his fear" once and for all, 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 absolute control of dragons.

Years before the events of the first movie, Drago visited a then dragon-terrorized Berk 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 for a joke and rejected his offer by laughing at him.

Enraged by this, Drago left the hall calling back to the chiefs, “Then see how well you'll 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 the chiefs except for Stoick, who narrowly managed to escape with his life. Stoick then saw Drago with his right-hand, Krogan, before they left the scene.

Eventually, he met Eret, and made him one of his dragon trappers.

Dragons: Race to the Edge
"(Krogan: Wait, Drago, please. I will not fail you again.) No one fails me twice."

- Drago to Krogan shortly before having the latter be executed.

Drago serves as the ultimate antagonist of Race to the Edge. His minion, Krogan, is one of the antagonists of the show, while Drago appears in flashbacks and is mentioned in the show. He does not appear until the final episode.

In the final episode, Krogan fails to bring Drago a Bewilderbeast and Drago has Krogan executed. He then claims that he will find a Bewilderbeast himself. Drago eventually found a hatchling Bewilderbeast in one of his earliest conquests. He then tortured it until it became completely subservient to him. It's likely this occurred after he had Krogan executed, as he had claimed he will find a Bewilderbeast himself during the events of the show.

How To Train Your Dragon 2
"No dragon can resist the Alpha's command. So, he who controls the alpha, controls them all."

- Drago Bludvist over his dragon, Muddy Beweilderbeast.

In the film, taking place about 2 years after the death of Johann, the main villain of the Dragons series and the central antagonist of the whole franchise, as well as Drago's execution of his right-hand, Krogan, Stoick tells about Drago's story to Hiccup who told everything he said and why he tried to kill Stoick.

Having heard rumors of other "dragon masters", Drago immediately orders his army to invade the nearest dragon nest and take down its alpha. Here, the dragon riders of Berk interfere, destroying many of the army'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 which 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.

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 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 mechanical arm, exposing a stump where his real arm used to be. Toothless fires one last huge shot, taking off one of the Bewilderbeast's tusks.

Drago and his Bewilderbeast are defeated, and the latter retreats into the ocean with Drago still on it. It's completely unknown what happens to Drago afterwards, but it's heavily implied that he drowned, as the Bewilderbeast could swim underwater whereas Drago couldn't, and without his prosthetic arm, he was likely rendered unable to swim, thus confirming his death. His Bewilderbeast, on the other hand, albeit offscreen, goes to live in peace to the Hidden World under Toothless and the Light Fury's rule, now free from Drago's control.

How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
A year after his death, Drago's army ends up being hired by the Warlords who try to succeed his plan, but get foiled by the Dragon Riders, so they hire Grimmel the Grisly, a dragon hunter worse than Drago and the person who hunted almost all Night Furies to extinction. However, Grimmel ends up betraying the lot 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 his surviving men useless and purposeless once all dragons retreat into the Hidden World until humankind can coexist peacefully with them.

Appearance
Drago is a 50-year-old, 6'10, 300 lb, well-built man matching his intimidating and dangerous personality. He wears a prosthetic arm from when his original was cut off by a dragon attack and wears his hair and beard in thick dreadlocks. Multiple scars run over Drago's face and body, evidence of his past encounters with dragons. His attire consists of a sleeveless shirt, a thick waist belt and a huge black cape made from dragon skin. Attached to his belt, he wears a loincloth, blue trousers, and boots covered in 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 of Slavic origin, while his actual physical appearance was based of people from the Mediterranean and northern Africa.

Personality
"Men who kill without reason cannot be reasoned with."

- Stoick describing Drago.

Drago is a very wicked, temperamental, ruthless, egocentric, manipulative, and confrontational barbarian who lacks any sort of morality and showed an equal disregard to his allies well-being as he did his enemies. His cruelty towards others was extremely monumental and both Valka and Stoick are aware of how scarring his actions can be. Although the full level of how torturous his methods of enslaving dragons was never fully explored, they are clearly aggressive, traumatic, and barbaric, as Drago was able to enslave a Bewilderbeast as a baby and subjugated it to a life of pain and misery. As a result his Bewilderbeast obeyed his command without any hesitation although this was more out of fear than actual loyalty as the second Drago was defeated the Bewilderbeast instantly fled his master.

However, this ruthlessness was not limited only towards his dragon subordinates, for Drago was equally abominable and monstrous towards his human compatriots. Eret (who was a dragon trapper and had helped Drago enslave dragons for years) was secretly disrespectful to him and was a tool for Drago's own personal mission for power.

He was also utterly antipathetic, uncompromising, contemptuous and intolerant of failure or disappointment; whenever Eret failed to satisfy his quota, Drago would also act extremely violent, dangerous and vituperative toward him and simply abandoned the dragon trapper once his goal of usurping Berk was nearly complete; he also ordered Krogan's execution after the latter was unable to bring him a Bewilderbeast.

He was also completely heartless and utterly callous, as well as destructive and sadistic, as proven when he murdered the chiefs of Berk when they refused to serve him, ceremonially scarred Eret as a reminder to never fail him again, and simply smiled when he discovered a brainwashed Toothless had killed Stoick instead of Hiccup. All of these things prove him as being a person of pure evil. Gobber describes Drago as "the most evil of men" after hearing what happened to Stoick and the other Chiefs when they meet Drago.

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 a love or bond between a dragon and a person. Drago's ultimate undoing was his inability to understand dragons being peaceful, nonviolent, 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.

Powers and Abilities

 * Strength and Fighting Skills: Despite his 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.
 * Controlling 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.
 * Intelligence: Drago's cunning is nearly unmatched; his plans are strategized to be nearly unstoppable thanks to his brute force. He is able to figure out ways to use his opponents' strengths against them, as shown when he turns Toothless and the other dragons against their former allies.
 * Leadership: Drago is more than capable in leading his vast and enormous army of Dragon Hunters and of dragons in armor.

Quotes
"I alone can control all Dragons."

- Drago tells the chiefs that he alone can control dragons.

"Then see how well you can do without me!"

- Drago leaves the Hall and orders his men to burn it down

"I don't want excuses! I want The King of Dragons!!"

- Drago asking his minion, Krogan where is the Bewilderbeast

"Get to the point!"

- Drago ordering Krogan to say what happened to the Bewilderbeast

"No one fails me twice."

- Drago neglects Krogan’s favour of forgiveness

"I’ll find another King of Dragons myself."

- Drago realizes that he has to find another Bewilderbeast now.

"You belong to me now!"

- Drago to Hookfang.

"I alone control the dragons!"

- Drago to Astrid.

"First there was one rider and now all of Berk?! You led them to ME!"

- Drago to Eret.

"Stop all preparations! We must attack the dragon riders nest at once! We will take down their alpha! Then we will take Berk!"

- Drago Bludvist.

"Whatever comes, keep hitting the mountain. We need to draw the alpha out!"

- Drago.

"The alpha! Now we have a fight!"

- Drago during the first showdown between him and Hiccup and after the male Alpha has released.

"You? I watched you burn!"

- Drago to Stoick during their fight.

"I've waited a long time for this!"

- Drago to Valka 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 meets Hiccup for the first time.

"NO! Let me show you!"

- Drago shows Hiccup the great power of his Bewilderbeast.

"Witness true strength! The strength of will over others!"

- Drago Bludvist.

"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.

"Your chief is dead! No one can protect you now!"

- Drago Bludvist seizing power over Berk.

"You certainly are hard to get rid of, I'll say that."

- Drago to Hiccup.

"Well, you need dragons to conquer other dragons."

- Drago to Hiccup.

"Take control of it! (Hiccup: Shut it out, Toothless.) Stop them!"

- Drago to his Bewilderbeast.

"Fight!"

- Drago ordering his Bewilderbeast to fight and his last words

Trivia

 * 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 ultimate 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 considered the polar opposite of Hiccup.
 * Hiccup uses love and compassion to gain the trust of Dragons while Drago uses fear and intimidation to enslave them to his will.
 * Hiccup considers Dragons "Amazing creatures" while Drago sees them as weapons of mass destruction.
 * Hiccup gently places his hand on a Dragon's snout as a sign of trust while Drago firmly places his foot on it as a sign of dominance.
 * Hiccup lost his foot as a Dragon saved him while Dragon lost his arm as a Dragon tried to kill him.
 * He has a mechanical/prosthetic left arm. However, because of his narcissistic need to appear invincible, he hides it with a cape from his men and his enemies.
 * The characters of him and Valka are portrayed as counterparts to each other: both are obsessed with dragons, know ways to control dragons and both are able to summon their own Bewilderbeasts for a battle. However, they are also depicted as opposites: Drago has many followers and backups, while Valka struggles alone; Drago subjugates dragons by force, while Valka wins them over with benevolence.
 * He shares various facial characteristics with his enslaved Bewilderbeast: Dreadlocks, wrinkles, broad chin, darker-than-usual skin tones, well-built physique, and so on. With this point, it 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 the Scrambler's design on this concept.
 * His last name is pronounced "Blood-fist" by many fans.
 * Director Dean DeBois originally stated 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.
 * However, half-way through the production of the film, Drago was scrapped from production as Steven Spielberg warned DeBlois that Drago's redemption story required much more screentime than they could provide, which keeps him as an irredeemable villain.
 * Drago serves as the ultimate antagonist in Dragons: Race to the Edge, with his henchman Krogan serving as one of the two main antagonists (alongside Johann). He was indirectly referred to by Viggo Grimborn, the main antagonist of Seasons 2, 3, and 4.
 * His character model would later be used for another DreamWorks sequel villain, Kai in Kung Fu Panda 3.

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